


It All Ends with the Armageddon

by Lord_of_Darkness



Category: Dream Team (Video Blogging RPF), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Arguing, Armageddon, Blood, Character Death, Child Death, Colorblind GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Dark, Death, Destruction, Dialogue Heavy, Dystopian, Figuring out the world, GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap Friendship (Video Blogging RPF), Gore, I will try to have good descriptions, LGBTQ Themes, Loss of Limbs, Lots of Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mass Death, Mental Anguish, Mental Breakdown, Mental Disintegration, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Minor Character Death, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Nightmares, Pain, Planet Destruction, Play Fighting, Plot, Self-Destruction, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Some Fluff, Some Humor, Some characters will never appear but will be mentioned, Stabbing, Suspense, Swearing, Sweat, Violence, Vomiting, Wishful Thinking, grim future, minor character injury, too much angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 50,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_of_Darkness/pseuds/Lord_of_Darkness
Summary: It all started as a normal day...okay that was a lie. Dream, George, and Sapnap decided to finally meet up. George and Sapnap ended up going to Florida, generously paid by Dream, and they finally meet! To them the day was already going to be notable for each and every one of them. However, there is another reason why the date is so special...a new virus began to rise the dead. Read through Dream's, Sapnap's, and even George's point of views to see how they manage to survive the outbreak...or not.(Updates will hopefully be weekly, I will normally post on Sundays.)//I will keep updating the tags as I develop the story, for instance, I actually have a plan now.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 37





	1. A Day to Remember

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! Just before we get this show onto the road, I would like to specify that this is my first work on this website. And I would also like to specify that I am NOT writing about the real life people. I am merely writing about the characters that they portray, and if shipping becomes a thing in this piece it is still of the CHARACTERS. If any of the Dream Team (Dream, George, and Sapnap) become not okay with fanfiction or shipping, I will take this story down. 
> 
> Thank you for choosing some...apocalypse reading, it will be a slow start but trust me it will be worth it. :)

. . .

Airports are always shitty, they over price food and they’re always crowded. I’ve always hated them, yet here I am. The pale walls that are severely scuffed from luggage accidentally hitting them, the large vents churning with cool air to combat the heat outside. The crowds are huddled towards the seating area, the food areas, and some are at the help desk--as if that will work. I see children, teens, adults, and even elderly. It was the brink of fall, most of them are going back home from vacation most likely. I tap my foot patiently, listening to music on Spotify, the floor is a darker color...not black but maybe a gray? A dark grey, which is also severely scuffed. Airports don’t strike me as clean, this one is no different. I look at the time briefly on my phone, they should be coming soon.

I hold two signs, waiting for two specific people, their names written on the signs. The signs themselves are two little whiteboards, in fact they’re mine. I bought them on the way here, to this place of hell, and wrote the names just seconds ago. Of course, I used their real names rather than their personas to save my identity. The bright white of the boards make everything else look like it’s dirty. It also contrasts the colors I used to write their names down. George’s name is written in blue, though it is a paler blue than what I thought the marker would be. Sapnap’s name, Nick, is written in red. Though, it looks pink for whatever reason, I thought that new markers are supposed to be good? Why do they--it’s like a worker purposely wrote with them for hours on end. 

I shake my head, I can’t think about the basically pastel markers. I check the clock again, within minutes...I’ll meet the people that practically changed my life. I am excited primarily, but as expected, I’m nervous too. Sapnap has seen my face, and commented on it too. I remember him calling me a ‘pretty boy’, I smile thinking about it. He had enunciated the ‘p’ and the ‘boy’ very strangely. All while George has yet to see me...like actually me. He’s seen what Twitter has, my eyes and the descriptions I’ve given. A clammer of chatter erupts--have I really been thinking about this for five minutes? Damn…--a woman speaks over the comms, 

“Flight 18 has arrived at the gate, I repeat, Flight 18 has arrived at the gate. Thank you.” She promptly drops the mic, with a click. I remember that this was Sapnap’s flight, unless it was George’s--a notification noise halts my music. I open my phone as the music starts up again, it’s from Sapnap! 

_SnapMap: Dreeeeeaaaaaaaaaammm~_

_Piss-Baby: ??_

_SnapMap: Prepare yourself, for I have come. ;)_

_Piss-Baby: Oh, you came?_

_SnapMap: Of course Dreamy only for you ;)_

_Piss-Baby: Ok ok, that's enough-_

_SnapMap: Coward, I’ll be right beside you in T-minus 5_

_Piss-Baby: 5 what?_

_SnapMap: Make that 4…_

_Piss-Baby: 4 what?_

Okay Sapnap, don’t tell me then. Just leave the person that will drive you around Florida on read. I see how it is. He can be very upsetting sometimes, but I love him for it. He is one of the best friends I’ve ever had. The other being George, and speaking of which, how’s he doing? 

_D R E: How’s it going?_

_Goggles: Its going...the plane is just about to land_

_D R E: GEORGE YOU’RE GONNA CRASH THE PLANE!_

_Goggles: What_

_DRE: You can’t be on your phone!!_

_Goggles: Do you actually believe that_

_DRE: Oh come on George, I thought you’d panic at least a little bit._

_Goggles: No_

_DRE: ‘No’ lmao, what’s that for?_

_Goggles: For you Dream_

_DRE: I mean--I got that._

_Goggles: I cant wait to see you Dream, only then will I figure out what the hype is about from Sapnap_

_DRE: I think you’re gonna have to wait_

_Goggles: Not for much longer :)_

_DRE: I know, see you in ten._

  
“Flight 23 has arrived at the gate, I repeat, Flight 23 has arrived at the gate. Thank you.” The lady announces yet again, ending with another click. I look at the escalators, expecting Sapnap to be down them within a few seconds. I hadn’t realized how anxious I was until now, we’ve all ever communicated via text or facetime or Discord. Now, I will see their mannerisms and know how they actually act. I hold up the signs more distinctly, as more adrenaline is pumped through my veins. My heart stops as I see him at the top of the escalators, people with other signs cry out to their loved ones...and I am tempted to do the same. However, the threat of my voice being recognized stops me. I wave at him, hopefully he sees me. He scans the area with his eyes, as the escalator rolls beneath him, that’s when his eyes dance around my general area. He then gasps, a smile forms. 

Sapnap fidgets more and more as the escalator ticks down, he appears to be very excited. I smile, hair starts to cover my eyes but I don’t care! SAPNAP IS HERE! I pause the music and take out my airpods. As soon as he reaches the ground level we rush at each other! I drop the signs I had, extending my arms for a hug. Sapnap comes barreling in, laughing. I hug him tightly, finally meeting him. The real Sap--the real Nick. I smell the scent of sweetness wafting off of him. Roses? I don’t care, I just care that he’s actually here! 

“Sapnap--Nick. I’m so glad to just...see you.” I say whilst we hug. 

“I could say the same Dre--Clay.” We pick up the things we dropped, without the smiles from our faces fading. “Are those brand new...whiteboards?”

“Yeah…” I erase the one that was for Sapnap, and tuck it between my arm and torso. “I didn’t just want to hold a lined, notebook, paper.” I chuckle. 

“Ah, only the best for the homies.”

“Exactly!” I finally readjust my dirty blonde hair, god that was annoying. I finally notice the height difference between us and it’s accurate. I place an elbow on Sapnap’s head and ‘lean’ on him.

“And just like that, I am no longer glad to have met you.” 

“Oh shut up, you love me.” I smirk, as we wait for the last member of our trio. “George texted that his flight arrived a little bit ago, so he’ll probably be exhausted.”

“Not if he knows the trick.” 

“What trick?”

“You know, going to sleep during the plane ride and waking up when you’re landing? It keeps the jet-lag at bay. I did that even coming from Texas.” He stands triumphantly, though I still lean on him. 

“Hm, I just think that you wanted a nap, NappySappy.” I grin. He scoffs a bit, though he can’t keep a straight face. 

“Fine, you got me.” He raises his hands in defeat, but then quickly places them back on his luggage. The floor isn’t as flat as I’d hope it was, so it was rolling away. I raise the sign for George up as another swarm of people go down the escalator. “Aw man! I can’t wait to meet Gogy!” Sapnap practically shouts, but I instantly cover his mouth. 

“Remember, if fans see Gogy and you...and they recognize my voice…” 

“Oh yeah...sorry Clay.” He rubs that back of his neck. I get off of him and wrap an arm around his neck. 

“Naw, you’re good. Just try not to do it too often.” I assure. I feel that same boost of adrenaline as we wait for George. 

“Nervous?” Sapnap nudges me. 

“Nervous? Could never be me.” I scoff. 

“Well, I am. We’re meeting...him! You know? This is a day sure to go down in HISTORY!” He raises his fists in the air out of excitement. 

“You sound more excited than anxious.” 

“Because I’m both!” He drops his arms, and turns towards me. “Aren’t you the same?” I think for a second and sigh. 

“Yeah. I am nervous but...I am also very excited.” I grin, deciding to say fuck it. “LET’S MEET HIM!” I scream, security eye-balling us. Everyone stares for a brief second. 

“WOOO! POPPING OFF!” Sapnap shouts. We laugh until we see him. The last of our trio. Sapnap decides to sprint back over to the escalators, yanking the sign out of my hands. “The big reveal, I’ll reveal you to him!” He whisper shouts. I grab onto Sapnap’s luggage, holding the sign carefully. I guess Sappy is getting really into this. I cover my mouth, hiding a smile. Let George judge people and see if they’re me. He’ll be looking for those that are green-eyed, dirty blonde, and tall. Though, since he’s color blind, he probably will only be searching for a tall person with the nice hands. 

I see Sapnap and George hug and they talk to each other for a minute or two. I scan my eyes over the large, crowded room to find a place to sit, and I spot a bench. I roll Sap’s luggage over to the bench and sit. I look at my phone, seeing the Twitter notifications from the Spotify account that keeps track of what I listen to. People talk about my song choices, and I peer through them. I make sure not to like anything, as people still don’t know that I know about this account. They’d get embarrassed like about that one fanfic. I can’t quite place the name of it, but it was a huge deal. That’s when I get a message from George. 

_Goggles: Im on the floor, where are you_

_DRE: Come find me ;)_

_Goggles: Thats what Sapnap said to do...also its refreshing to meet him btw, you should talk to him some more_

_DRE: I can, after you find me._

I close our messages, and turn off notifications just until George actually sees me. In the meantime, I continue to look through Twitter. The three of us had decided not to tell anyone about the meet up until we all had at least a day to hang out without the internet freaking out. People might search Florida, as sad as that is, people might try to scope us out. I peer back up to see George and Sapnap making rounds through the crowd. Sapnap looks at me with a smug face, I give the same look. 

“Nick, just tell me where he is.” The brit complains as he and the other walk ever so closer to me. I get a glimpse at the other, he looks just the same as always. However I can’t help but be baffled how he’s actually here. He’s right in front of me. SAPNAP is right in front of me! I just never thought that...this would happen. This very well might be the one of the happiest days of my life after an event or two. 

“Nope, no-can-do, I want it to be a sort of scavenger hunt! Hahaha!” Sapnap drums on George’s shoulder. George groans. 

“Okay then...have we even passed him?” He groans. 

“Oh, most definitely. In fact, we’re close by him. I might add that he has my luggage, so have fun with that information.” Sapnap giggles. 

“You’re such a pain in the ass.”

“ _Your_ pain in the ass.” Sapnap winks. George chuckles a bit, but then wanders even closer to where I was. 

“Um...excuse me sir, is your name Clay?” George asks some guy standing, and I have to hold in my laughter. I act like I’m on my phone at this point. 

“N-no.” The man wheezes out, must be a smoker. He looks pale, and his face is sunken in. Not even to mention the clothes he wears, though it could be just what he wears. 

“Ah sorry, my mistake.” George smiles, then walks back to Sapnap. 

“Why’d you go to the middle-aged man? Do you really think that Dre--Clay would be 21 and look like him?” 

“I mean, I never know!” George blushes, clearly forgetting of the information that he does have. I cover my smile once more, as if I’m watching a funny video. I could’ve made a noise, because George snaps his head in my direction. “Wait...I heard him!” He looks around where I am, and I try not to panic. That is until he walks up to me. “Excuse me, are you named Clay?” He asks me. I smile, tucking my phone away. I slowly get up, revealing how tall I am. George steps back a bit, but still looks at my eyes. 

“My real name is that...though, my friends call me Dream. Especially GeorgeNotFound, he’s a cool guy-” I try to keep a straight face until George’s reaction ruins it for me. I couldn’t even TRY to hold in my laughter, are you kidding me! His jaw literally dropped on the floor! George runs into my side, hugging me. I wrap my arms around him, tightly embracing him. The smell of french vanilla fills my nose, vanilla of course. “Hi.” I mutter. 

“Hi.” George hugs tightly before letting go. “I guess I see what the hype is about.” He fiddles with his fingers, and I can’t help but wheeze some more. 

“You act as if I don’t already know, cutie.” 

“Shut up Dre-” I stop George from saying the rest by covering his mouth. 

“When we’re in public, it’s Clay okay?” I give a soft smile, slowly removing my hand. George nods, but a grin still rests on his face. “You know, Georgie, I’m glad to finally meet you.” 

“I could say the same.” He smiles, until Sapnap wraps his arms around the both of us. A look of shock is plastered onto his face. 

“Well, girls, it’s been fun in the airport...but I have to say the smell isn’t my favorite. Can we go?” Sapnap whines, chuckling shortly after. I smile, noticing Gogy looking at me before laughing too. I don’t blame him, he’s just seeing my face for the first time ever. I would be shocked by that amount of beauty too--I’m just kidding of course. 

“Yeah, we can go.” I duck my head, leaving Sapnap’s left side unattended. “Make sure that you guys have everything, and we’ll go to my car.” I roll Sapnap’s luggage to him, he catches it with his free hand. However, George soon leaves him too as he grabs his duffel from the floor. As they pat their pockets, to probably check if they have their phones and such, I do the same just in case. Airpods, phone, keys, gum, and markers. I’m good! “You guys good?” I question, turning towards them. They both nod, and I lead the way. 

As we walk to my car, the sweltering heat hits us from leaving the air conditioned airport. Sapnap and I are used to the heat, as I actually live here and he lives in Texas. George immediately starts to sweat, and we talk of the weather. I look around, squinting my eyes as the sun blares at the highest peak of the sky. We have a lot of time left in the day, though Sapnap and George are going to need to unpack. I guess we’ll find out when we’re there. The opportunities are among us! We can do so much here, though next time, we’ll be going to England that’s for sure. And maybe next time, George can treat Sapnap and I to plane tickets rather than me. 

“Why is it so hot out?” George complains. 

“It is the end of summer, what did you expect?” I snicker, but George groans. “Don’t worry, by the end of this week, maybe it’ll be a bit more cool.” 

“Yeah, bitch.” Sapnap smirks. 

“I’m not a bitch.” George furrows his eyebrows, out of frustration. 

“You totally are.” Sapnap teases. 

“Am not!”

“Are to.” Sapnap continues to bicker with George, and I’m glad that they still are how they are on the internet. Then again...it’s still the first day of meeting. As the two go back and forth, I get my keys out and unlock my car. 

“Okay, let me pop the trunk for you children.” I smile once again, as I go to the driver’s side and pull the lever to pop the trunk. I have already cleared it out so I know I don’t fear that there’s any garbage back there. Or junk for that matter. I walk back around to the back of the car only to find...Sapnap ruffling George’s hair? “You know, I was going to help you guys...but it seems like you guys are preoccupied…” 

“DREAM HELP ME!” George screams, Sapnap just giggles.

“Dreeaaaaaaaaammmmm~” Sapnap releases Gogy only to come after me next. I rush to the front of the car and slide across the front of it. I peer at him from the other side, and he tries to come over. I rush back over to the other side. “Come on, why are you avoiding it~” He coos. 

“Because I don’t want to get nuggied!” I then see George close the trunk, and come over to me. I stare at him to not do it, he rushes towards me, and he does it anyway! I run back to the driver’s seat and slam the door quickly. 

“Come on Dream...you’re gonna over heat in there.” Sapnap warns. 

“I didn’t lock the doors, get in. I don’t want to pay too much for parking, as you know, I paid for your guys’ tickets.” I pull the ‘I bought it for you’ card, and it works. 

“Okay...DIBS ON SHOTGUN!” Sapnap begins to run to the passenger side, but George just seemingly appears in the seat. I look over at him, frozen. George just smiles out the window, blowing a raspberry at Sapnap. “Oh come on!” Sapnap defeatedly opens the back door, but scoots to the middle seat in the back. “I called dibs though, Gogy.” He gives the other puppy eyes. 

“As if that matters--should’ve paid attention to where I was before you called dibs.” George smiles, and I sigh. 

“But those aren’t the rules of dibs…” I look at him with a side glance as I turn the car on. Sapnap giggles as George just crosses his arms. “Make sure that you both buckle up, I like to speed.” I smirk and they immediately put their seat belts on. 

“What do you do--SPEED RUN LIFE?” Sapnap exclaims, all I can muster is a shrug. If I’m being honest, I like to be fast rather than slow. I’m sure I’m not the only one like that, it’s not weird. I guess you could call me a fast-learner then, as I was like this in school too. 

As we begin to drive into the down-town area we pass many other apartment complexes, other restaurants, bars, and even little shops. I just focus on the road ahead of me, besides, I already know the ins and outs of this city like the back of my hand. I have just been growing up here since I was born. My mom and sisters still live at the old house, but since I was able to afford my own place...I decided to do that. I even brought Patches with me! Oh...I forgot to tell George and Sapnap that Patches is in my apartment with me, though they should already know due to my Twitter and Instagram accounts. I suppose I may love to post her, but hey she’s fucking adorable. I stop at a stoplight and as the two were talking I notice someone walking strangely. They stagger a bit and hold their side, as if they were injured. They bore a t-shirt and just some regular jeans, though...there seems to be a lot of one color on the side that they hold. I shake my head, maybe I’m just seeing things. Should I even be driving if I am? Did they see that person? 

The light hits green and I continue to drive to my apartment. I can’t get that person out of my head. They seemed to be clutching onto their side for dear life, as if in severe pain. They shambled like they were looking for a crutch or that they were on their way to their death bed. Maybe I should’ve gotten out of the car and helped them...that would’ve been nice for me to do. The shirt...what color was on it? It was a blue shirt, but a faded shirt. The color was dark and it made the shirt stick to their side. What the fuck was it? I can’t remember if it was thin or thick, though the sheer thought of it makes me squirm. I then see my parking spot, and park. I sit in thought for a brief second until it hits me--was it...blood? 


	2. What the Hell is Going On?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was that blood? Maybe...I don't know okay? I could just be...hallucinating? No...everything is too real for that.

It couldn’t have been...blood right? The person was still walking, though be it they were walking at a dreadfully slow pace. They could’ve been in grave danger and yet, I just sat in the car. I could’ve called the hospital or something. I clench the steering wheel, damnnit. I feel someone shake me, I shake my head. I turn to George, the person shaking me, and hum a ‘Huh?’. 

“Dream, you’ve been in thought for a couple of minutes. Are you okay?” He questions me. Why am I even overthinking it? I don’t know that person’s life, they could’ve just had a stained shirt...but then why were they clenching the area? 

“I’m fine...I think I just saw a person that was injured and walking. It just...startled me.” I was honest with the other. Sapnap gets in between us and joins in. 

“How long ago was this?” He mutters. 

“I’m not sure...at that stop light though. Maybe five minutes, possibly ten?” I grab the keys out of the ignition and open my car door. “Whatever it was, we’ll die in this car if we stay here any longer, it’s hot out!” I try to avoid the subject now, which no one objected against. 

Everyone opens their door and gets out of the car, slamming them shut. I lock the car, double checking as I do so. Florida is crazy and I just got this car, there is no way I am losing it anytime soon. I motion for them to follow me up to the pathway to the main apartment building, luckily the air-conditioning works in this building. We won’t have to worry about the overheating inside, however we should limit some outside activities. Though, going swimming in the ocean sounds nice with them. Swimming just hits differently when you’re with friends and that’s a fact. 

I live on the third floor and I decided that we should use the staircase, as I use it anyways. This receives a few complaints, but I don’t really care. Climbing up the stairs, my mind can’t help but wander about that bloody person again. I mentally curse myself for proceeding to go back to the disturbing imagery. They could’ve been hanging on by a thread...and yet I didn’t do anything. Why am I beating myself up over this? There was nothing that I could possibly do in a car, nothing that would help at least. For all I know, it could’ve been a trick of the eye. Maybe it was a design on their shirt and they had cramps or something. I really am just jumping to conclusions, there’s no way someone would be wandering around like that. _That includes someone being injured, it’s just stupid that I’d go there._

“We’re here!” I unlock the door into my apartment, already hearing the mews stemming from Patches! I let Sapnap and George in before me, and I shut the door after I go in. I carefully lock the door again, making sure that no one can get in. I even put the chain down, just in case. Call me paranoid, I call it smart. 

“Aw! Patches is way cuter up close!” Sapnap squeals from delight. I chuckle at his tone. 

“What are you, a school girl?” George snickers, and I smile hanging my keys to my car and to the apartment up on the wall. I kick off my shoes by the front door, causing Sapnap and George to do the same. “Your place looks so...nice.” George looks around in awe. 

“If you were to see the full spectrum of color, you’d notice that the curtains are green and some pillows are green too. It probably just looks like piss-” I laugh. 

“No, even with the piss, it looks good.” He looks around, petting Patches as he walks. 

“Okay, I only have one spare bedroom. Even then, it’s very small because it was supposed to be a walk in closet. I could sleep on the couch if you both want a bed.” I scratch my head, knowing we probably should’ve discussed this way earlier. 

“No, you should be able to sleep in your own bed Dream. I can take the couch for the first week we’re here and then George can take it on the second week. How does that sound George?” Sapnap looks at the other, however he seems mesmerized by the way my apartment looks. He looks up as soon as his name is called again though. 

“What?”

“Would you mind taking the couch on the second week? Dream shouldn’t have to sleep on the damn couch.” 

“I wouldn’t mind taking the couch then, yeah. I can do that.”

“Poggers!” 

I lean against the couch and dramatically fall onto it, little did I know what this would cause. It caused Sapnap to jump onto me! I feel the wind get knocked out of my lungs as we both laugh. 

“What was that!” I sound off my tea-kettle noise. 

“DOG PILE!” Sapnap cheers, he glances at George. Mentally probably trying to communicate that he too should join. This ended up working, because George ended up getting a running start and leaping onto the both of us! I feel more weight pile on but I continued to laugh. “Yooo, Dream’s turning red!” Sapnap laughs harder before, causing me to do the same. I feel tears form in my eyes from laughing so hard.

We ended up laughing for ten minutes straight, until George scooted over to the right side of me. He was now sitting normally, and eventually Sapnap sat on the right of me. Of course, I end up being in the middle. 

“What do--you guys want to--do?” I ask in between breaths, still trying to regain composure.

“I mean, we still need to unpack right?” Sapnap asks George. 

“Yeah, that shouldn’t take over 15 minutes though. What would we do after?” Gogy states. 

“Oh, you’re right.” 

“Of course I am, I always am!” 

“Debatable.” I throw in, this receives a glare from the other. Though, his gaze lasts longer than how is should’ve. 

“I mean, he is right though Goog.” Sapnap gets off the couch and brings his luggage to the end of the couch. “Where should I even put my things? It would be a disaster just out in the living room.” 

“You could put them in the guest bedroom, that is if George is willing to share half of the dresser with you?” I turn to Gogy yet again, he just nods. 

“Oh, pog. Okay, then I’ll just quickly put my things away. Be back in a few.” Sapnap rolls his suitcase to a door. “Uh...which door is it?” He chuckles. 

“Door on the far left.” I respond, I hear him open the door and shout thanks. I then notice George turn to me. I look at him, only for him to lean in closer to my face. “Wh-whatcha doing there, George?” I lean back a bit, just for some breathing room. 

“Give me a break, Dream. This is the first time I see you, I want to get a good look! The airport was too loud.” 

“What does that have to do with seeing?” I grin, receiving a nudge. 

“Shut up, you know what I mean.” He continues to look at the details of my face. 

“Okay...this is getting kinda creepy. What are you? A stalker?” I joke. 

“You have dimples when you smile, and you have so many...freckles!” He grabs my face examining them even further. 

“Look, I know we’re close and all--” 

“There’s so many of them, and your skin is soft! What the hell Dream!” He releases my face, and I fall backwards. I wheeze. 

“What do you mean? I was BORN like this, George!” 

“Your looks are popping off! How is that fair?” George gets fake angry. 

“I don’t know--” I look at him with a smile. “Oh yeah, I never got to ask yet, how was your flight?” I ponder. 

“It was fine, I ended up sleeping through most of it. Okay, so maybe it was all of it. Did you know that there’s a trick to it?”

“I actually did, Sapnap did the same trick. He even told me about it.” There is a brief silence. In this silence I can feel him scan over everything. His eyes are full of curiosity of the new area around him, hopefully he’ll adjust okay. “So that means you’re not tired at all?” I manage to continue the conversation. His eyes flicker back over to me from my voice, but then he immediately looks at the ground. 

“I’m somewhat tired, but not exhausted. Why?” He questions, noticing Patches walking over to us. 

“I was just wondering besides, after you guys finish unpacking I can show you around. Because I live in the downtown area, we can visit neat places! Stuff that’s only in this town, you know? You won’t find some shops or cafes anywhere else but here…” I smile fondly at the thought of all of the family-owned businesses or even my favorite pizza joint. I guess you only remember the things you love rather than know it at the time I guess. George pets Patches as he thinks. 

“I know what you mean...there’s areas like that when we call a place home.” 

“Home, huh?”

“Yeah.” Patches jumps up onto the couch and purrs loudly, she then seems to notice me and paces over to me. “Hey!” George quietly protests. I chuckle, she decides to promptly lay on my lap. George still stubbornly pets her. “Dream?”

“Yeah?” I move my hand through my hair, then back to petting Patches. 

“Can you describe some of your favorite places here? I mean--I’m not sure how much we’d be able to see within two weeks and-” He retracts his hand along with his statement, and I exhale slightly. 

“Of course I can, though it would be too much to describe!” 

“Just start with one of the places you go to regularly.” George shifts his demeanor as he turns his whole body towards me. I lean my arm against the back of the couch, with my other hand still petting Patches. I think for a second, until I am brought back out of thought by Sapnap coming back into the living room. 

“I am DONE!” Sapnap shouts, startling Patches back off into my room. George looks at Sapnap slightly aggravated. 

“I was this close to unlocking all of Dream’s backstory! This close!” George exclaims sinking into his seat. I laugh, ruining the atmosphere that was created earlier. 

“Oh yeah? Maybe I’LL get it.” Sapnap smirks, causing a gasp from George. 

“Have fun with that, I gotta unpack.” George grabs his suitcase and goes to the room, muttering incoherent things as he goes. I snicker as he does so only for Sapnap to hop back onto the couch and lay down, his head on my lap. I look at him with my head slightly tilted, he boops my nose. We both erupt into laughter, he really does know how to lighten a room huh?

“I never got to ask how your flight was, how was yours?” I smile. He nods thinking about it. 

“I did sleep through most of it...though! This one guy just couldn’t stop blabbering on about something...he seemed to be panicking. Mans really just was scared of the flight I think? I barely even remember, but I do remember that he woke me up because he thought he was dying.” The other tells the story and I chuckle at his energy. 

Suddenly, the sounds of sirens blare outside. Sapnap jolts up, nearly hitting our heads together. I immediately get off the couch and look outside. There’s so many...flashing lights. Cop cars, ambulances, and even firetrucks are flashing by the complex. Is there a chase...no, then there’d just be cops. There could be a terrible fire but...that’s a lot for one measly house fire or...maybe an apartment complex was on fire? I see people flooding into the sidewalks, looking at the zooming vehicles. Sapnap turns to me, the light flooding through the window to the room. The blues, yellows, and reds all lighting the place up. George rushes to the two of us and opens his mouth to say something, but he doesn’t say anything at all. We are all stuck in a trance of watching the line of cars continue to the center of town. What is going on?

As we see the supposed last emergency vehicle whiz by the window, we don’t move. What the hell...that was a lot of people in those automobiles too. What could it possibly be? I can only hope it wasn’t too dangerous or that people aren’t injured...though, with context clues people might be dying. The news! Surely, the local news is covering it! I run from the window and toss myself over the couch, scrambling for the remote. I turn on the TV and switch it to the news. 

I watch in agony as people in the studio seem to be scramming around in the background of the news anchor. They mention a situation at a local hospital, but it was the biggest hospital. I watch as the lady on the screen reads out the script very carefully, 

“--they aren’t telling us anything relating to the situation. Police refuse to comment on anything as they are trying to de-escalate the situation.” That’s bullshit. “Other ambulances from other hospitals are sending out their doctors and nurses to try and calm whatever is happening in the building. Again, we don’t have any real information about the events, but bystanders keep saying that something more sinister is at play.” I just hear the constant sirens in my ears, that person from earlier rages inside of my head. I lean my elbows on my knees, and lean into the palms of my hands. Something at the hospital? I then shoot up, realizing that my mom works there. FUCK! 

I pat the couch for my phone, only to remember it’s on the counter. Sapnap realizes my panic and tosses my phone to me. I try to mutter a thanks, but it doesn’t escape my mouth. I hit my mom’s contact, hoping that she picks up. I pace around the room as the phone rings...and rings...and rings. George pats my shoulder when I stand still, still hoping her phone is on. Then...there’s a click. She’s on!

“Mom! What’s going on? Are you okay?” I flare up with concern. 

“ _Honey? Clay, dear?_ ” She sounds fearful, I should compose myself. 

“Yeah, it’s me. Are you okay?”

“ _I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m not allowed to release any information, or else I’ll be fired._ ” 

“What can you tell me?”

“ _Don’t worry-what? What! Honey, I have to go--_ ”

“Mom?” She hangs up and I gently close my phone. I feel Sapnap and George stare at me. I take a deep breath in, and then slowly out. “She works at the hospital that this chaos is in. She sounds busy and panicked. Whatever they’re not telling us, it’s big.” I seat myself back onto the couch. 

George and Sapnap follow suit, they ask questions upon questions. What if my mom gets caught in all of this...my sister...Sapnap...or George? I look at the screen, something building up on my chest. I exhale carefully, thinking of what to say. 

“Dream, are you okay?” George taps my shoulder, Sapnap waits impatiently for my answer. “Dream?”

I look at the screen once again, the screen showing the chaos around the hospital. People protesting wanting to know what is going on. I take another deep breath, still thinking about what to say. I don’t want them to get hurt, all because I invited them over here. I don’t want to think about the worst, however I have to think about all of the conclusions here. There’s a good chance that we won’t be able to go downtown, though it would’ve been nice. I get off the couch, startling the both of them. I take a step or two before turning to them, a stone-faced look on my face.

“Due to the current outlook on the news, things very well could get...difficult. I have a few things to say, one, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that whatever is happening is happening now, you both just wanted to hang around for two weeks. It is very poor timing, and I am sorry for that.” I begin, seeing the both of them shift in their seats. “And the other thing is...I won’t let anything happen to the both of you. Nothing will even think about touching either of you.” I furrow my eyebrows, I go to the front door. “We should probably be prepared for the worst, I’m gonna go to the grocery store.” I put my shoes on, lacing the laces. I notice the both of them put on their shoes next to me. 

“Not by yourself.” Sapnap grimaces. “We’ll be right beside you.” 

“Yeah, and you can’t predict the future Dream. Don’t be sorry for events that aren’t your fault.” George adds. I nod, grabbing my apartment’s keys. “How far is it anyhow?” 

“Just a block, we can walk there.” I mention, opening the door. They head out and I look at Patches who roams back into the living room. “You’re in charge of the house girl.” I mutter, closing the door. I carefully lock it, checking the lock twice.

As we go down the flights of stairs, I think of what we’ll need to buy. Food, water, and other things. I pat my pocket, of course I left my wallet in my pocket the entire time we were at my place. I’m glad I forgot to put it on the counter, otherwise it would be embarrassing to have to go back to retrieve it. I shake my head, no I can’t think of stupid shit like that. This shit is serious, I can’t make light of the situation.

We walk out of the building, already seeing people rushing to get inside. People are shouting and others are calling their loved ones. Maybe one of us should’ve stayed in the apartment to watch the news and text us about it. I can’t think of the past though, I sigh feeling the pressure start to build up. What kind of promise did I just declare to them? How am I going to ensure their safety! I feel something building deep within, but it all crumbles as soon as Sapnap wraps an arm around me. George takes the other side-

“I can see your face, dude. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself! You should only do that when we’re recording a manhunt!” Sapnap smiles, a light in the middle of a dark tunnel. I feel blinded, but I smile with him. George already stands tall with his grin as we walk in the weird fashion. As people panic around us, Sapnap and George are a beacon of hope. I won’t succumb to the fears or anxieties I have built, not when I have two rays of sun next to me. 

“Okay, Sap. Oh and I know what we need to get.” I grin as some of my favorite people are next to me. I continue to lead where we are going to go, seeing more and more people as we get closer to it. Don’t tell me that looters were going crazy, I doubt that the situation would be that bad. I shrug off the thoughts for now, more like I pushed them aside. Besides, this place is more of a convenient store. It is where I purchase all of my groceries though mainly because of how close by it is to my apartment. 

We get ever so closer to it, to where I point to it and say there. The other two just nod, showing signs of nervousness. The only reason I assume they’re nervous is the amount of people by it, maybe my doubts were wrong. I mention that I’ll grab the food and that they should get the water. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to grab something that would make them happy either, like a board game? Cards? We split up, the two staying together. 

I quickly grab a basket and rush over to get some canned goods, only to find people fighting each other for shit. I groan, knowing how Schlatt gets if people even somewhat fight or ruin his store. I quickly get canned vegetables, canned fruit, soups, ramen, or other things that don’t perish too quickly. I notice a bag of frosted animal crackers, maybe they’ll enjoy this? I grab the decent sized bag and run over to buy a deck of normal cards along with uno cards. I notice flashlights too and grab them just in case. Oh, and they come with batteries, that’s nice! I hear a gunshot, fear strikes my soul. What the fuck! Why is someone packing--I hear people scream and rush out of the store in a hurry. The shelves practically emptied, the floor is littered in clutter, the only people left are; Sapnap, George, two women, and a little boy. I see someone raising a gun, it was the big man himself. Schlatt. I glare at the other, knowing that he likes to threaten to use that thing. 

“What the hell!” I shout at him. Schlatt closes the doors to the shop, as he walks towards me. 

“Ah, if it isn’t Clay! Nice seeing you around, I know that you wouldn’t disrespect my store like those...theives. See, even you took a basket while those bastards just wanted free shit.” Schlatt looks around to see everyone staring at him. “Oh, other people too. Listen, Clay, my friend works in the hospital. He’s not actually hired by them, but he helps patients cope with some fucked up shit.” Schlatt looks around the floor, he notices another basket. He picks it up and starts putting things into it. 

“Oh?” I set the basket I was holding down to help him. 

“Yeah, he told me...everything. Things are going to get very bad down here, I suggest you skip town with your loved ones. Look, you’re a good guy, I get that. I’ll supply you with what you need, for free. I just…” He sighs. “Things are never going to be the same after the news gets spread around and after the things escape.” 

“Things?” I look at him in disbelief. 

“Mhm, things. Look, Clay. I won’t be leaving town, my bud is practically stuck in the hospital because they won’t let anyone in or out. It’s going to be a war-zone, but he’s a great guy like yourself.” Schlatt continues to ramble, but I can tell he’s serious. When he’s serious, he’s serious. “Clay, I won’t be able to leave the shop either. I can’t, due to him being in that prison. He’ll look for me after they are...overtaken by those things. I’ll also be rationing what I can to those I like, those like you. If you decide to skip town, let me know, so I can officially close my doors once and for all. You got that?” Schlatt gets up, and picks up my basket too. “Hell, if you need anything, I got your back.” He brings the items to the front of the store. 

“Thanks, that means a lot.” 

“I know it does.” He pauses for a second or two. “I can probably make a care-package for everyone in here if people want me to. I can ration everything out, I just need time to do so. Food, water, the works. All for nothing...or almost nothing.” Sapnap and George look at me in a weird way, but I shake my head to them. The other people decided to leave while they can, meaning those two women and the little kid have left.

“What would you want?”

“A promise that my efforts won’t be for nothing, that no matter what--you will survive. Clay, you will make it to the very end. It’s the price, your assured life.” Schlatt looks at me with furrowed eyebrows, he’s dead serious.

“I promise that your efforts won’t be for nothing, Schlatt.” I swear, he nods. He readjusts his cap, beginning to sort things out. “Oh and those two over there are with me.” 

“I’ll take that into account.” He goes behind the counter and grabs three cheap backpacks, he sold a variety of items here. He begins to look at what I grabbed and snickered at the frosted animal crackers. “What are these for? Everything else was actually very smart, tactical even, but these aren’t.” 

“I...I wanted to get it for Sap-Nick and George. They aren’t from here, Florida I mean. This was a very shitty introduction for them. So I thought that...they’d deserve even just something special.” I explain it to the other man. Sapnap and George wandered over to where Schlatt and I were, and handed Schlatt the water stuff. I look around the glass outside and check my--where’s my phone? Did I leave it at home? Mother of god...what if...shit! “Hey, does anyone have their phone on them?” 

“Yeah.” George whips out his phone. “Do you need something?” 

“Just the time.” 

“It’s 3:30.” 

“Already?” Schlatt peers at George. 

“Mhm. Why?” George asks.

“Nothing, the day is just faster than I expected.” Schlatt mumbles, I can tell he’s stressed out. Yet, he still is helping us out. Then I hear people continue to argue outside, at the front doors. They’re trying to get back in, they want more items. I turn to Schlatt, only for him to hand me a dark green, cheap backpack. “In each of these bags, there are the following; A reusable water bottle, a flashlight, canned food, a rag, and some medical items. However, Clay’s bag has the actual medicine and those frosted animal crackers. Oh and before I forget, I wrote something for you. Open it only when you find out what the fuck is happening, okay? I don’t want to be the one to tell you it, as it...it’s bad. Very bad. But that letter should hopefully help you.” Schlatt explains. He then gets up and hands Sapnap a dark red backpack. He gives George a dark blue one. 

“Thank you Schlatt, is there anything that we can do to repay you?” I try to bargain. 

“Just...live for me bud. I don’t want to get sappy, so I won’t. I just don’t expect to see you again after this, primarily because you should just skip town. However, if on the off chance you do come back...it might not look pretty. I’ll leave supplies in the storage room for you, the key will be upstairs under the carpet.” He gives me a handshake and pulls me in for a hug. I’ve been going to this store for years now. I don’t get why he’s acting like this, but then again...he knows what’s going to happen. I then hear him whisper something into my ear. “Whatever you do...don’t trust anyone else besides those pals of yours. You got that?” I nod as he pulls away. “Also, you might want to take the back entrance. People are already trying to break in now.” Schlatt informs. 

Sapnap, George, and I go over to the other door. Schlatt finally says goodbye, he waves sadly. I wave back, hoping that this won’t be the last time I talk to him. We exit the store, backpacks on our backs. It already became 4:00pm as we got out of there, that’s when more sirens are heard. We try to sprint back to my apartment as quickly as we can, seeing more and more emergency vehicles pass us by. Schlatt was panicking before, because of whatever those people are going to fight off. I don’t know what could change his demeanor like whatever they’re fighting does. I shake my head, I can’t think about it. Not yet at least, I need to wait until we’re back home!

We reach the apartment complex again, though the amount of vehicles going to the hospital seems to not have thinned at all. I open the door to the building for the others and they walk in, I gently close the door. I notice that the halls look like someone let a wild animal loose, did the panic spread here too? Of course it would, everyone is connected to the news in one way or another. I open the stairwell door again, and they go in. We go up the stairs, leaving once we reached the third level. The words from Schlatt rack my brain, as I begin to analyze it more and more. _‘Things are never going to be the same after the news gets spread around and after the things escape.’ What the hell is that supposed to mean?_ I then see the halls look even more mangled up here than down there, if I’m being honest...most of the parked cars were gone when we came back. They could be going out of town or to the hospital, either or...it terrifies me. The streets are hardly as empty as they are. 

I twist the key into the keyhole of my apartment door and open it carefully. I look around to see that everything is just as we left it, the TV still on and everything. Patches lays peacefully on the couch as we all walk back in. I lock the door, putting the chain on the door with the lock too. Whatever is coming, I don’t want it in here. I open the balcony door, it has plants on racks because I tried to have something lively before...though now they’re over grown. I shake my head and look at the other balconies around me, just furniture or those glass dishes smokers use to put their cigarette butts in. I look down onto the streets alleyway below, nothing but garbage bags. I leave the balcony and close the door, locking just in case. I place my backpack down onto the counter, snatching my phone instead. I look to see if there are any missed calls or texts. Twitter worrying about me, that’s right. I only listened to Spotify today, of course they might worry about my inactivity. 

Sapnap and George leave their shoes by the door, with mine of course, and put their bags onto the counter as well. They seem to be shocked by what they’ve seen, though they just watch the TV of the local news. George seems to be analyzing the screen and every word that is being said, Sapnap just plays apps on his phone. I sigh, deciding to tweet something. 

_Dream; Sorry about the inactivity, I was hanging out with people today :). Just wait until the announcement that I have <3 _

I hit send and set my phone down. I walk over to Patches’ food dish and give her food and some fresh water from the faucet. She bolts over to me as soon as she hears the food bag, I pet her as I get up and put the food away. I stretch my arms, I look at the time again...4:35. I missed 4:20...what a disaster. I take a deep breath and open the backpack I had from Schlatt. He forgot to mention that he put the cards in there too...thanks Schlatt. 

“Anyone down for some Uno?” I question holding up the deck. George and Sapnap shoot up with excitement, I smile sitting on the floor in front of the couch. They sit on the floor too, we continue to joke and talk as if everything was normal and fine. As if we’d all known each other in person for years, like we grew up together. 

Hours pass as we play Uno, to the point where George’s stomach grumbles for some sort of food, Sapnap and I laugh at how loud his stomach growled. Only for my stomach to do the same thing, which caused an onslaught of laughter from all three of us. I ordered pizza, forgetting about a lot of things already. Until we get the pizza and the girl that delivered it mentioned how work was very empty today. We thank her, and tip her well. 

We all tweeted at the same time after dinner, right before deciding to hit the hay. 

_Sapnap; Met Dream and George today! Currently POPPING OFF!!_

_Dream; Met Sapnap and George today! Currently POPPING OFF!!_

_Georgenotfound; Met Dream and Sapnap today! Currently POPPING OFF!!_

“How do you think the fans will react?” George inquires. 

“Either by freaking out or popping off!” Sapnap responds. 

“Or they could spam, ‘LETSSSSSSS GOOOOOOO’! Because I know I would.” I add in. We all decide to turn in at 10, knowing that we’ll have plenty to do tomorrow. With or without whatever’s happening, we’ll find out things to do that will be fucking fun! I am so excited but also terrified because what if Schlatt’s warning is too true? I head off to my room, saying goodnight. Patches follows me and jumps onto my bed. I close my bedroom door, I slowly change into sweats. I remove my shirt and socks, finally turning off the light. I plug my phone in to charge and I lay in bed, the vent blasts cool air causing me to bury myself into the comforter. I hope things will be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come again soon as things are just starting to maybe catch your attention? Comment who you'd like to see, and maybe I'll add them in if they fit the narrative eventually! (Reminder that I will take this fic down if CC's no longer like fanfiction)


	3. Home-sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How come I can never sleep...the news didn't help either. I bet Dream and George are already asleep...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter! I am going to be quite busy with finals this week, but hey! After, I can write everything out for those that like this!
> 
> (VOMIT/BLOOD WARNING!!)
> 
> ^^^  
> That's going to start being a normal thing, so I will warn you for the next few chapters. But after that, it is a given.

. . .

So far away from home...in Florida. It's not like I'm as far away as George is to home, though it is still difficult to leave. I left my cat at my parent's house, knowing they'd take care of it. Here I am, lying on the couch unable to sleep. What is it? I don't even get it. Am I home-sick? I roll over to face the blank TV, it's probably still warm from the news blaring on its screen earlier. I roll over again, facing the ceiling. God, it was always like this too. I could never go to sleep at sleepovers in Texas either, how the hell am I going to get to sleep now? Especially with the shit that we've seen. Even now, sirens blare. The sirens go along with the flashing lights that whiz by Dream's apartment, all of them leading to that damn hospital...maybe that's another reason I can't sleep. I sit up, having given up on the idea of sleep already. I stretch, popping my back in the process. I should go for a walk...hopefully Dream and George won't mind.

I get off the couch, scanning the room in the dark. As my eyes adjust, I see the glimmer of the keys hanging on the wall. I toss a sweatshirt on, carefully sliding my phone into my pocket. I don’t want to lose it in fear of getting lost or something. I grab the keys off the wall, slide into my shoes. The gym shorts I wear should work, again I’m just going for a walk. I carefully unlock the door, stepping out into the halls. I lock the door behind me, taking a mental note of the apartment number. I run a hand through my hair, sighing. Why are the halls so...dirty? When we arrived here earlier, they were practically spotless. _ Why are they so scuffed now? _ I guess the news might be scaring some people after all, though they didn’t have to rush so fast that it looks like a struggle. 

I walk down the messy halls, groaning at the scuff marks from luggage? Who knows, because I sure don’t. In fact, it’s just freaking me out. I haven’t even been here a day, yet everything already is fucked. I use the stairwell, already adjusting to what Dream does on a daily. Earlier, he was talking with that Schlatt guy. Was it the same one that we’d sometimes talk to on Discord? I didn’t expect him to be in the same city with Dream, that’s pretty convenient if you ask me. I reach the main floor, I open the stairwell door to reveal...another huge mess. What the...what the fuck is that? 

Carefully, I examine a wall with a huge splatter on it. Think, Nick, that can’t be...no come on. I look closer, hoping that it was paint. The smell of paint would waft over to my nose and not...not a metallic smell. Or maybe it’s ketchup! Yeah, the smell of that sweet, vinegar smell. Please don’t let it be what I think it is...please let it be something else. I smell it...no. It’s blood. I back away, my eyes widening from the sheer thought of what could’ve happened here. What...what the fuck is happening? I rush through the main doors, needing to take that walk now! I take a deep breath of the crisp air. It’s brisk and it hurts to breathe, I cover my nose and mouth.

“No...what-” I mutter, thinking out loud. As I look around, there’s only three cars in sight. Dream’s and the other two. There were dozens before...people are leaving to go to the hospital protest or...skipping town like Schaltt suggested to Dream. Should we skip town? No, no, no, no...that’s stupid. George and I just got here, I’m sure that Dream would be devastated if I brought that up. That this town is clearly fucked and that we need to leave immediately. I’m sure that would shatter his heart maybe even mind. Perhaps even cause an argument...I take another deep breath. I feel my feet work on their own, wandering up and down the street. I probably look like a mad man. I turn into an alleyway...tensing up as I see a man hunched over another person. I tilt my head out of curiosity but my body is telling me to get the fuck out of here. “H-hey..” I mutter, walking slowly to the man. “Are they okay?” I speak up just a tinge louder. 

I get no response, maybe I’m not loud enough. I get closer, testing myself before I bolt in the other direction. I hear a soft noise, one that rips apart my insides, a noise where I could faint if I heard it in this scenario. It was as if there was macaroni and cheese...and someone was stirring it. I know it’s ridiculous! I mean, there’s just a man crouching beside another one. Though his back is facing me, I think the other person is hurt or something. I get the strength to clear my throat, causing the other man to twitch slightly. 

“Excuse me, are they okay?” I ask in a normal voice, this causes the other to turn towards me...revealing what they were doing. I back up slightly, regretting going for a walk. He has guts smeared among his face, his hands are clenched with intestines...he looked like he was eating the other person. The other person was...dead. Their stomach was ripped apart and was being mauled by this guy! “What the fuck are you doing!” I scream, backing up. The other stumbles toward me, scarfing down what he had in his hands. I turn around and bolt back to the apartment building, I have to get out of here. I have to get to sleep. I have to-footsteps are behind me and they’re fast. I look behind me, seeing the man sprinting towards me-- “GET AWAY FROM ME DUDE!” I yell, feeling for anything in my pocket that can help me. Nothing. I sprint to the building...realizing that the keys would take a second to unlock the door. This guy would get me. 

Hastily I go past the building towards the direction of the hospital. I look around if to see if I can use anything to deter this psycho off of my track! I look behind me again, he’s gaining on me. I grunt, picking up the pace feeling weightless. I want to vomit, a bloodied man was eating another person. I...I try to keep it locked into my inner thoughts. I need to get back, screw it. I turn around, shoving the guy as I go. It knocks him over, but he gets back onto his feet almost instantly. I hoped that would buy me time, only a few seconds. I run faster than I ever have, finally getting the balls to go back into the apartment building opening the door quickly and going up the stairwell. I run faster and faster with each step I take. I go to the the apartment number and quickly jam the key into the lock and get into the apartment. I lock the door, put the chain on. I back up, expecting banging on the door. Nothing...sheer silence. I feel my heart pounding, my lungs prick my insides...I carefully go back to the door and look through the eye-hole. I jump seeing that he’s there...trying the doorknob. Once he realizes that he can’t open it, he looks where I’m able to see him. He looks through the eye-hole, causing me to jump back. Only then does he bang on the door, shaking the door...rattling the chain. 

I hear someone groaning walking into the living room, it was George. I panic, unable to explain the situation. He looks at me, then at the door that was getting hit. He walks toward me, question peaking from his eyes. I can tell he’s unable to sleep too, probably from the environment or the loud fucking noise! I look at him and he seems taken aback.

“Sapnap, what happened? What is happening?” George asks me, carefully getting closer. I look at him, feeling everything tense up inside of me. I want to cry, but it’s not coming out. The banging on the door falters...did he give up? I raise my hand to ensure that George stays right there. I peer back through the eye-hole...he’s gone for now. I have a sigh of relief, glad that he gave up. But that’s when I feel the bile build in my throat, god. I rush over to the bathroom, opening the toilet lid. I puke up the pizza we had earlier...the grease burning my mouth. The smell of blood floods my brain, causing me to vomit more. I feel like shit. “Holy shit--Sapnap!” George rushes to my side, rubbing my back. I’ll have to thank him later, but Jesus Christ. He was eating that other man...he was...more vomit overflows my mouth. If I wasn’t as fast as I was...would I be food too? I feel my stomach ache, but I stop throwing up. 

“Tooth brush..” I sputter out, George nods and goes to the guest room. In the matter of seconds, he’s back with my tooth brush and some toothpaste. I flush the toilet, going to the sink. I quickly brush my teeth, I also gargle water to get the fucking taste out of my mouth. My throat burns, but I know I have to explain everything to George. Dream too, once he’s up. I leave my toothbrush in the toothbrush holder, letting it dry. I close the bathroom door, turning the light off as I do. George sits on the couch, I can’t sit. The adrenaline still courses through my veins from that guy. 

“Sapnap, what happened?” George asks again. I put a hand through my hair, how the hell can I phrase this? I look at the balcony...it peers over the alleyway. I rush over to it, looking down. The body is right there. 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk.” I point to the keys I through in the process of rushing to the bathroom. “I was walking, thinking about the shit that happened today. The rioting the...the news. I was pacing at the front of the building, so I went into this alleyway. I found...a man crouching over another person.” George walks over to me, looking at what I’m looking at. He covers his mouth at the sight. “The dude was...eating the...other guy. I ran, he chased me...he still had guts in his hands! I thought I was going to die and I would’ve just disappeared in the night!” I fall to my knees, looking at the ground below the balcony. George sits with me, looking at the sight in fear...disgust and...shock. He wraps an arm around my shoulders, giving me a side hug. I look back at the corpse...what. Hold on. What? “George...the hand...the corpse it..the hand moved.” 

“Sapnap-” George tries to assure me but, he looks at the corpse again too. It’s moving! We hop back onto our feet, this guy’s guts are hanging out of it’s nearly emptied torso. The blood drips onto the pavement as that guy-- _ thing _ gets up. It shuffles, dropping organs. It walks out of the alleyway, leaving George and I in shock. “They...they were dead. They had to be!”

I back up into the apartment and off the balcony, away from that fucking disaster. This has to be a nightmare...it can’t be real. I pinch myself, I stub my toe. As I wince in pain, the realization sets in. I turn the TV back on, anxiously awaiting the news channel. George closes the balcony door, and leans on the couch in anticipation. We need answers, we need to...figure this out. A different news anchor sits in the seat of the previous one, this one is a guy who is middle aged. 

“I’ll get Dream up..” George gets out of the room as I intensely listen to what this dude has to say. 

“There is a disaster at South Miami Hospital, nurses and doctors have finally released information about events from 3pm. For those unaware, police were called due to patient violence. Patients were uncontrollable and all had to be restrained out of safety to visitors, employees, and for themselves. However, there have been doctors and nurses bit by the patients to which we have Dr. Henry DaRey on the line to explain what is happening.” The screen cuts to a doctor as Dream and George both walk into the room. Dream looks disheveled, as if he actually went to sleep. I continue to keep my eyes glued to the screen. 

“Yes, hello, I making a--” Screams in the background of the video are heard and the doctor winces. “Short video. We’re trapped in here, patients are...breaking their restraints and eating people. Their goal seem to feast on human flesh or flesh in general. It’s a..” The doctor silences themselves and footsteps are heard running around and out of the room. The doctor is under the desk, now that I inspect the footage more. He peers back over the desk and goes back to talking. “Bloodbath in here. It starts off with a bite, if you get bit it’s over. Or--” Footsteps are heard again, but the doctor stops recording only after a scream from him is heard. Dream’s face falls, realizing what’s happening. The news anchor seems petrified as the screen cuts back to him. 

“Uh...so that’s what’s happening at the moment. Officials are reporting that some of those crazed patients have escaped, officials are also reporting that all hospitals around the area are experiencing the same thing. People are recommended to stay in doors, stock up on food and stand by the station for information. People should remain calm and-what?” The news anchor looks around the studio, more screaming and cries are heard within the room. The station is cut off with a screen that shows that there was an issue. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this short chapter! I promise to try and write the usual 9000 words again next time! AND I'm trying to get the formatting to be consistent and better. I am still quite new to Ao3, but I am getting the hang of it. Also, please consider subscribing it's free and if you don't like it--yeah you know the drill lmao.


	4. Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The news channel cut out...what the honk? There was no reason for it to...no there is. Those...things, they're probably to blame right? God, this is too much--

The news channel is down, it shows an error screen on the TV. “We’ll be right back!”, is what is says. There’s an uncomfortable silence; the type that suffocates everyone in the room. It hurts, god why does it hurt? Dream stands behind the couch, shocked. His hair is a mess, he wears baggy clothes. George covers his mouth, speechless. Patients, huh? Wait, isn’t Dream’s mom in that hospital! I open my mouth to speak, turning to Dream. I can’t find the words but he senses my urgency. Dream nods, rushing towards his bedroom. Most likely to grab his phone, I look around to search for mine. I quickly spot it in the corner of my eye, I swiftly grab it. As the screen lights up...I get a text from my folks. I tap into my phone, sliding to the messages. Both of my parents are worried, as they know that I went to Miami. They saw the news from their station, I don’t know what to type. Should I say goodbye? Should I promise to see them again? What...what can I say? What should I say? I begin to hyperventilate only for George to grab my shoulder. 

“Calm down, Sapnap. Breathe.” George drags his words out, in the other room I hear Dream panicking as he mutters stuff here and there. I look at Gogy, seeing him grab my phone. “I can type it for you, if you’d like. What do you want to say?” He seems to be choking his own thoughts down. I take a deep breath, feeling my face grow uncomfortably hot. As if I was going to start crying any second now.

“O-okay.” I mutter out, taking in more air. “I want to tell them that...I’ll be okay.” I begin to speak carefully. I don’t want to panic my parents nor do I want to panic Gogy. “That I’ll find a way back to them, even if the journey is hard. I’ll try my best to get back to them as soon as I possibly can. That I l-love them. To make sure that they take care of the animals until I get back.” I feel hot tears leak onto my face. Gogy quickly types into the phone as he hears me speak, he hits send. I look at the message on the screen, hoping that it sends properly. Gogy turns to me, patting my shoulder out of comfort. I quickly hug him tightly, never wanting to let go. 

In the background, I hear a frustrated sigh and then a loud crash. Something slides down a wall...it slid down slowly. After wiping my tears, though they won’t stop coming, I stand up. George leads the both of us down the hall, just to make sure that Dream is okay. When we slowly open the door, the creak creeping me the hell out, we see Dream hugging his knees. He’s against the wall, his face is covered with his hair covering most of it. He sniffles here and there...he’s crying. The both of us rush over to him, I sit on my knees as we reach him. Gogy decides to sit criss-cross though. Dream peers up for a brief second before going back to his position. 

“What happened?” Gogy asks, having the confidence to ask. I don’t think I could ask him anything without bawling, god I’m acting like such a bitch.

“What isn’t happening?” Dream scowls, but quietly apologises. “I’m sorry...it’s just that--my mom.” He looks up, noticing the tear stains on my face. He takes a deep breath and wipes his own tears, snorting up the snot in his nose as he does so. “My mom got bit by one of those crazed patients that were on screen. Of course she was freaking out, but as we were on the phone I heard her change. She wasn’t acting like her usual self after even three minutes.” Dream hugs his knees again, still looking at us. “She got bit two hours and thirty minutes ago. She made sure that I knew that.” Dream pinches the bridge of his nose, tearing up again. “I heard a gushing sound...she wasn’t speaking anymore. She dropped the phone, I was begging for her to get on the phone again. But a gushing sound was made along with a male scream. I hung up after that.” Dream points to the phone on his bed. “I threw my lamp in a fit of rage I guess. It scared Patches into the other room.” He looks at us, the area around his eyes wet and red. 

“Bit? That doctor said one bite and it’s over.” Gogy mentions, Dream nods. 

“I know, I have reason to believe that she...bit the other guy.” He cringes, grasping his hands together. 

“But why would she do that? That’s insane-”   


“You think I don’t know that! Sorry, I’m just a bit over stressed at the moment like everyone else in this damn city.” 

“Don’t worry, it’s okay. I’m sure that she’s alright though?”

“You don’t understand, George. There was a minute before I hung up, she was snarling and growling like a monster. She was blood thirsty--that wasn’t my mom. No way in hell is that  _ thing _ my mom.” Dream runs his hands through his hair. 

“Okay, well Sapnap and I saw something in the alleyway from the balcony. A dead man, with his guts hanging out, rose up from the ground and continued down the path! As if he was going out for a fucking walk.” Gogy starts to break a bit more. “His-his guts were hanging out! Blood was everywhere and there was banging at the front door because of something chasing Sapnap--I might never see my family again!” Gogy grips the carpet around him, close to ripping it off the ground. 

“My folks are worried sick, I might not see them again either. I mean, push comes to shove we can-can drive to Texas. I can go back with hours upon hours of driving, but who knows if this shit will be isolated.” I choke up again. 

“Jesus…” Dream hesitates before hugging the both of us. “I promise to keep the both of you safe, you got that? I can’t lose the both of you too.” Both Gogy and I nod, finally realizing the extent Dream is willing to go to. He sounds so serious, yet so broken too. “I think we’re going to need to take a trip as soon as the sun rises, I need to see if my sisters are okay. If they are, we can take them with us.”   


“With us where?” I mutter, pulling away from the group hug. Gogy slowly gets out of Dream’s arms, looking at him with a weird gaze. 

“To Texas of course. I’ll try to see if I can book a flight for the both of you to go home, if we can’t, Gogy can stay with me until the airlines get back to normal. But Sapnap, it’s possible that we can get you back home.” He already steps into the role of a leader, it’s admirable. 

When we first became a trio, the name ‘Dream Team’ arose from the fans that watched us. Though those fans primarily came from Dream himself, he still tried to get both Gogy and I famous too. He was always so considerate and kind, kept a level-head about things. Whether it was a fake scenario in the SMP we were in or it was something that could’ve gotten to the point of being off the face of the internet. In many ways, he’s the leader. I’m perfectly fine with that, I just hope that he doesn’t make promises that he can’t keep. I want to go back home, I also want to make sure that he doesn’t self-destruct to get me there. He can often get caught in his own thoughts too, leaving himself susceptible to overthinking things or over planning. Even now, he’s lost his mom most likely, but he keeps worrying about us.

“Are you sure you don’t need time?” Gogy asks him. Dream shakes his head. 

“I can wait for just a bit, you guys aren’t even home. I am home. I’ll probably have you look at airline stuff as I drive over to my parent’s house. That is, if you don’t get car sick reading.” 

“I don’t get car-sick period. I got you.” Gogy nods, giving a slight smile. That smile was pained, yet he wanted to ensure that he could handle such a small task. 

“Good. In the meantime, hopefully it wouldn’t be too much to ask if you guys packed up again? If we’re going to do this thing tomorrow, we should get ready for the worst. I’ll even raid my own cupboards for food or anything for the road that we’ll need. I could also stop by Schlatt’s place again, maybe he’ll come with us. He’s smarter than me with some things, especially since he seemed pretty in the know about things.” Dream takes a deep breath, getting off of the floor. He brings both of his hands down. Both Gogy and I take his hands, starting our night of preparations. 

Gogy and I rushed to get our things back into their respectful bags while Dream even packed his things. The thoughts of that thing crawl back to me, wanting me to throw up again but I don’t fall for it so easily. I look at the guest room, as I put my things back into the suitcase. I think about what could’ve been, think about all of the things that we could’ve done within the two weeks we had originally planned. If things went extremely well, we could’ve talked about our next plans to go to England. Maybe even make our own new jokes that only we’d understand, maybe it would cause Dream to wheeze for hours. Maybe it would cause George to give a soft laugh. Maybe it would cause me to chuckle every time I heard the joke. I feel my heart drop thinking about things that could’ve happened. Thinking about...spending more time with the both of them. I genuinely love them, they are my best friends and I don’t know what I’m going to do if I go back home and the world falls apart. We’d never communicate with each other without the internet. Black clouds my vision, images of intestines being eaten by a monster. Images of the newly stained pavement fill my head. Images of the news flash in my head. Sounds of screams pound my head into oblivion. Sounds of guts being eaten, the sound of the sirens. I stop packing, gripping the sides of my head. I need everything to just wait, everything needs to just slow down!

“Sapnap, are you okay?” Gogy asks me quietly from the doorway. I thought he was right next to me. “You’ve been sitting there for ten minutes, bud. You’ve zipped up your suitcase 15 minutes ago...come on. We should help Dream empty the cupboards.” Gogy carefully grabs my suitcase, yanking me from my agonizing memories. I nod, getting off the bed. I stared at my hands for ten minutes...thought about everything for 15. I walk back into the living room, noticing that Dream and Gogy have done a lot already. Dream has our backpacks from Schlatt filled to the max capacity. There are also tote-bags, used for groceries, filled with access stuff that couldn’t fit. 

“Has anyone seen Patches?” Dream asks panicking. “I haven’t seen her in an hour or so.” Dream paces around, looking underneath the couch. He looks out to the balcony, looks under his bed. He searches the entire apartment, finding no sign of her. He takes a deep breath, freaking out. 

“I haven’t, Gogy?” I mention.

“Nothing.” He responds. Dream opens the balcony door, looking on the roofs of different buildings looking for her. He begins to hyperventilate, not seeing her. He looks down at the alleyway, hoping to god she wasn’t down there somehow. He doesn’t see her at all. 

“I..I can’t find her.” Dream takes another breath, he’s trying to calm down. 

“We can try to find her--” Gogy tries to be hopeful, though he immediately gets shot down. 

“We can’t. We don’t have the time to, we can stop by after getting my sisters and Schlatt.” Dream sounds pained to say this, but he’s right. We can’t exactly wait for her. 

Before we knew it, dawn broke the sky. None of us were able to sleep at all, it was to no one’s surprise. Dream looked out the eyehole in the door, gasping as he looked. He carefully unlocks the door, removing the chain as he did so. He grabs his car-keys, that are connected with his apartment keys, along with slinging on the backpack. He carries two tote-bags too. Gogy has both his and Dream’s suitcase, carrying a backpack on his back too. I have my suitcase, the backpack on my back, and two tote-bags on one arm. I need to be careful on those stairs, but we all need to be that careful. Dream opens the door, looking around. Blood is all over the floor and the walls, some apartment doors are opened...others are broken. Then there are the ones like Dream’s door, nearly in perfect condition with the exception of a few new dents and splatters of blood. 

Dream leads us to his car where he carefully pops the trunk. This time, however, he doesn’t escape to the front. He stands by us, paranoid. He looks everywhere for people or maybe even for Patches. He probably also looks for the crazed patients, they can’t be too hard to miss. After carefully placing everything into the trunk, I sit in the backseat again. Gogy sits in the passenger side of the car, whipping out his phone. He checks to see if any airlines are taking off today, there aren’t any. In fact, he had a difficult time just picking up a signal to search it up. Dream slams the trunk, a shuffle of feet begin to sound off. Dream stops, opening the car door. More footsteps are heard. He turns to look around, confused. That’s when we all see it...a bunch of cops running our way. They all look mangled and dead...all rushing to us. Those had to have been at the nearest hospital.

“Shit!” Dream curses, getting into the car swiftly. He slams the car door, inserting the keys into the car. He ignites the engine to life, reversing into the empty streets. The crazed cops continue to rush at us, bloodied up. Gogy stares, eyes wide open. Then we all get jolted back when Dream speeds down the street back into the regular drive mode. He’s muttering profanities under his breath. “What the fuck was that?” He breathes out. 

“It was a horde of them...those things.” I spit out.

“Did you see the way that they’re all bloody and covered in chunks of bloody meat? The smell wafted over here, it was so metallic that it made me gag!” Gogy points out, god the smell was awful. 

“Of course I saw that! Who could miss that?” I piped out. 

“We might have to stop at Schlatt’s first then, if that horde was to get even thicker...we’d have an issue getting back to Schlatt’s without any of those things getting to us. What would they even do? Just bite us or...worse?” Dream thinks out loud.

“Well, that one guy in the alleyway was getting eaten rather than just bit. I’d assume that all of those things are like that, rather than just the one.” I conclude. 

“So Schlatt’s first? It hasn’t even been a day.” Gogy questions. 

“Yeah, but with that mob out there last time, it makes me wonder how many of them were bit. Besides, Schlatt is closer than us going clear across town. It would make more sense to be in a house too. An apartment isn’t that smart of a choice...but then again, Patches is still back there.” Dream mumbles.

“I suppose you’re right.” Gogy brings a hand to his cheek as leans on the window sill of the car. He looks at all of the damaged buildings, all of the destruction from just one day. It shouldn’t be too bad of a drive to Schlatt’s shop, as we were able to walk there within 30 minutes yesterday. I look at the empty streets, well semi-empty streets. Some cars were still on the sides of the road. I look behind us, seeing that those things weren’t behind us anymore. However, they weren’t faster than a car. They very well could still be tailing us, just not right behind us. 

We eventually end up back at the shop, it was a corner store so we couldn’t really park but Dream did anyways. The streets were so empty anyways, it’s not like it mattered. He mentions that someone should stay behind the wheel just in case him and whoever else needed to book it back and drive, they could. Gogy doesn’t know how to drive, leaving that position up to me. I gulp, taking Dream’s spot in the car. 

“Don’t worry, we won’t be more than 10 minutes. If we are, lock the doors of the car and go back to the address of my parent’s house.” He brings a paper out of the middle counsel, writing an address down. “It’s this one, but I’m sure you won’t need it.” I nod. 

“See you two in ten.” Of they went into the store, yet again. I close the car door, and keep a weary eye around the area. I don’t want to get jumped, nor do I want Dream or Gogy to get jumped.  _ You got this, you got this. They’ll be out in a few minutes. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you're enjoying the series :), and next chapter should be interesting ;).


	5. Hang in There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We had to leave Dream's apartment, a horde of those things went after us (good thing they're slow). Sapnap was told to stay in the car as we checked out Schlatt's Shop one last time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last warning for the rest of the book, this is a very heavy chapter. It deals with a lot of things like; 
> 
> Suicide, Blood, Death, and lots more. If you are uncomfortable or triggered by any of these things, this book is NOT for you. 
> 
> Thank you for choosing this book, and please, enjoy the sadness of a decaying world...

Leaving Sapnap in the car doesn’t seem like the greatest option, but it’s the best that I guess that we have. Besides, Dream did say that we will be less than 10 minutes...though that still gets me nervous for the 19 year old. I mean, he is the youngest in the group. He still has classes and stuff, though he is still an adult. It just doesn’t sit right with me for whatever reason. This whole thing is making me queasy and uncomfortable. Dream grabbed my hand as we went into the alleyway, going to the back entrance. I’ll admit it, Dream was very...attractive. I knew what my sexuality was, I was comfortable with it. I knew that I labels didn’t really suit me either, in fact, labels don’t really suit our group in general. I get that now isn’t the time to think about this, but I can’t help it. I don’t want to fall for him, god I know I don’t want to. He’s just so...nice? I’m not sure how to quite place it, or maybe it’s just the over all fact that he has a nicely built face or body? Though, I will probably just forget that I feel this way in the end. I can’t really do much with them anyways, maybe if things were normal, I might even let them prosper. I grip his hand tighter, trying to relish the feeling. He stops in front of the back entrance. He then turns to me.

“Stay safe and be quick, we don’t know what’s awaiting us behind this door.” He mutters. I nod, preparing to run back to the car if necessary. He carefully opens the door, making sure not a sound is made from it. As we both walk in, we’re cautious of everything. I gently close the door, looking at the gate that closed the front windows and doors. Dream walks around the place carefully, it was empty...barren of anything. The shelves were cleaned out, nothing left. Well, nearly nothing left. Dream hopped over the counter, he notices a stash of alcohol. Miniature things, but still drinks. He groans, but then remembers the note. He takes it out of his pocket, when did he place that in there? Oh well. I walk up to Dream, puzzled. 

“What’s that say?” I question trying to peer over to see the paper. 

“It reads;  _ Dear Clay, when you read this you’ll already know the crazy shit going on. Of course, at the moment I’m writing this right beside you. The store will most likely be completely cleaned out due to those that panicked, such as they are when we last saw each other. I almost decided to lock the place up, but realized you might go on a fit of heroism. However, I can assure you, you’re probably too late. I would have done one of two things. Left or… _ ” Dream pauses. “ _ Died. _ ” He reads the rest quietly to himself, he drops the paper. He rushes up the stairs, I look at the paper. It talks about their own relationship as friends, I didn’t really know him personally. Schlatt was just a villain for one arc of the SMP, though now that seems as if that doesn’t matter. I carefully place the note into my own pocket, maybe Dream would like to keep it. 

I rush up the stairs to find Dream, only to see...Schlatt hanging from the ceiling. A thick rope is around his neck, causing irritation. There’s bruising, red marks, and scratches from the rope. The face that Schlatt wore...his dead eyes peering down at me. I look at the inhuman way his neck was craned at. His body was limp, dangling from where he was. A chair was tipped over...the walls were covered in markings of a person going down the rabbit hole. I feel a scalding liquid fill my mouth, bile. I gulp, forcing it back down into my throat. I rip my eyes away from the corpse, looking around the room. Where was Dream? He’s up here somewhere. 

Just by this room, I could tell this was the main living space, a living room of sorts. The couch and TV were very old and cozy...Schlatt never seemed like the type to--then again I never knew him that well. That’s when Dream comes from a tiny little room, he carries meds and another backpack full of supplies. He seems cold, distant. He sets the stuff down on the couch, he now has a survival knife. He grabs the chair and carefully stands on it. 

“Can you move the couch so that it catches him?” Dream pleads. I nod, moving the backpack to the coffee table. I put the meds into the bag, then move the couch. I hear a slice, then a thud. Schlatt was cut down. “Thank you, we couldn’t leave him like-like that.” Dream gives a broken smile, trying to comfort me...however he fails in that. He grabs the remaining rope around the corpse’s neck and takes it off. He tosses the rope away into the garbage. I look at Schlatt’s lifeless body, he still looks terrifying. I don’t like the way it seems like he can still--a hand immediately grabs my neck! My eyes widen in terror as Schlatt’s hand is wrapped around my neck. As I struggle, Dream is looking around the room. Schlatt slowly sits up, his neck moving inhumanly...it was snapped in the fall. I gasp for air, but then that’s when Schlatt growls to life! He snarls bringing his teeth close to my face, I use my other hand to shove his chest away from me. 

“Dre-Dream!” I scream, Schlatt standing up as I finally get his hand off my neck. The animated corpse runs to me, already making me fall to the ground. Dream whips his head in my direction. 

“George!” He shouts, running over. He leaps over the couch as Schlatt gets ever so closer to biting my neck. I try to keep him away from me, but for whatever reason he’s so powerful. That’s when Dream grabs Schlatt by the hair and yanks him off of me. I back away into the nearest wall, feeling my neck. I breathe heavily as I watch Dream stab the other in the chest...he keeps moving! Dream’s face falls as he gets pinned. I look around, seeing nothing to help him with! I look at the coffee table-nothing! I look at the-Dream then feels around for the knife around him. He grabs it and stabs the other in the skull. Dream grunts as he jams the knife into Schlatt’s thick skull. After the knife made contact with the brain, Schlatt stopped moving entirely yet again. A dark red seeps through the new wound, Dream just tosses the other off of him. He looks at me, concerned. He slides over to me. “Are you okay? He didn’t bite you or-”

“I’m fine.” 

“Are you-”

“I said I’m fine.”

“How-how the hell did that even...he was dead.” Dream paces, already looking at the knife he left in Schlatt’s skull. “I stabbed him in the chest...he should’ve been down then.” Dream looks at the corpse. “His neck was already snapped, he should’ve been down then.” Dream runs his hand through his dirty blonde hair. “He was already suffocated, he should’ve been dead!” Dream carefully approaches the body. He grabs the knife, yanking it out of the now bleeding skull. The blood only dribbled, as the body was already dead before? It was more congealed blood rather than a flow of it. How long was Schlatt hanging there? 

“Are  _ you _ okay?” I ask quietly and carefully. I don’t want to upset Dream more than how he probably is.

“What do you mean?”

“He was your friend, he’s...gone now.” 

“I don’t think I’ll be okay for a while, George.” Dream looks at the bloody knife. “He’s dead, he turned into what my mom became. She was what he was. Meaning...she’s not going to die until her brain is destroyed. She’s...a monster, isn’t she?” Dream looks at me, a look of pain washing over his face. 

“I don’t know...if I knew, I’d tell you.” 

“I know you would.” 

“Let’s get going.” I walk over to him, taking the knife from his hands hesitantly. I wipe the blood from the knife onto a nearby rag, I stop myself from throwing up though. I pocket the knife, tossing the rag into the trash. As I do this, Dream carefully places Schaltt’s corpse on the couch. He puts a blanket over the other, as if to bury him. Dream comes over to me, pausing to look around the mess of this room. I muster up the strength to grab his hand and lead him down the stairs, only after grabbing the supplies he found. Before we go though, he gives in to grabbing some alcohol in the end. I open the bag on my back for him, he puts one big bottle and three smaller ones. Of course, I doubt we’ll actually use these to ever celebrate anything. Maybe start fires...start fires? What am I saying? We’re going to be on the road most likely. 

We go back out, seeing Sapnap getting out of the car as he sees us. He hugs the both of us and takes the backpack from me. He sits back in the backseat, looking through the bag. He takes notice of the alcoholic stuff. 

“Where’s Schlatt?” He questions as Dream and I buckle up. Dream hesitates but goes back to the driver’s seat. Sapnap’s face falls, as he covers his mouth.

“Let’s get going..” Dream takes a deep breath, causing Sapnap to promptly get into the backseat yet again. The next destination is Dream’s old house, his mum’s house. His sisters should be there, they better be there. Dream lost a lot within the 24 hours, more than me at least. I guess I don’t even know if my family is okay though. I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again...if I’ll ever see my cat again. Same with Sapnap too, however, his is more realistic to get to. He actually lives in the States. I don’t live here, but maybe...just maybe...this will only exist here. In the U.S. I know that’s awful of me to say, and it is just plain stupid of me to think that. But...it gives me hope. I get into the passenger seat in the front, hoping that Dream’s siblings are okay. Not only for their well-beings but his too. 

We have to drive to the other side of town, so it’ll take 30ish minutes. In that time, we could talk or try to calm our minds. That’s when I open my phone, maybe I should check the news from out of state or out of the country. Maybe my local news from back home? Maybe I just need a new perspective. As we pass by the streets of Miami, some people raid small stores. Some people yell at us to help them. Cars are either crashed or on fire. There was a whole mob when we were just preparing for today. Over night, this city became a hellish nightmare. I quickly shake my head and get back to looking at the news from my hometown. Whatever was happening here...was happening there. My idiotic thinking was truly idiotic...of course it wouldn’t just stay in one country. Planes, ships, cars, travel in general opened up every creavass of the Earth to this--infection. I quickly move to my text messages, spamming my parents to see if they are okay. I call them. They didn’t reply. I clench my phone, feeling the build up of my emotions nearly burst. I try to breathe normally, try to contain everything. I’m not the only one that is feeling this! I shouldn’t--I shouldn’t yell or cry when Sapnap or Dream aren’t doing so! I mean, they’re both in shock and in pain! I…

“Are you okay? What did you find out?” Dream quietly asks, motioning over to a sleeping Sapnap. I nod, but then gulp after I do so. 

“I...Dream. It’s not just here that is going through this. The entire world is in chaos. Dream, my family isn’t...responding to me. I can only think of the worst at the moment and I-” I feel a hand ruffle my hair. I look at the other, teary eyed. He gives me a trembling smile, threatening to vanish at any thought of harm. 

“It’s okay...we’ll--we’re going to be okay. If you need to cry or talk to me about it, don’t hesitate to. I think that it’s healthy to cry, especially in times like these. I’ll be a shoulder to cry on, if you’d like. Or I can hug you once we’re out of the car if you would prefer that too. Ha...both if you like that better. All that I’m saying is that...both Sapnap and I will be there for you. If they respond or if they,” Dream sighs, looking at me for a few seconds before gluing his eyes to the road again. “I don’t want to give you false hope, George. I still stand to my promise though...I’ll make sure to protect the both of you the best of my abilities.” I sniff, feeling the snot dribble down to my mouth. I cry as quietly as I can, Sapnap is sleeping. I wipe my tears, but they don’t stop. Of course they wouldn’t. I try to clear my throat, taking a deep breath I think of a bunch of things to say back to him. But only two words barely leave my mouth.

“Th-thank you.” Was all that I could muster. 

The car was silent except for the slight snores from Sapnap, the occasional hum of music from Dream, and my sniffling. I look out the window, the sun looked really pretty in the sky today. There were plenty of clouds, but the sun still reigned supreme every chance it had. The clouds weren’t a perfect white color as some would be, but they had a few grey tones within them instead. Was a storm brewing? I opened my mouth to ask Dream but I opted to just look at the forecast. Of course...it was the same stuff as yesterday’s forecast. I guess I should’ve known that people wouldn’t care to predict the weather in these times. I decided to ask Dream in the end anyways. 

“Do you think it’s going to rain?” I question. 

“I think so...it has been a while too.” He looks at the sky for a few moments. “Why do you ask?”

“I just wondered, I guess.” I decide to look out the window some more but after a few minutes of silence, Dream was speaking again.

“You know, I think it’s fitting. If it was to rain of course.” 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” 

“How so?”

“Well, I mean, take a look around us. The current situation it’s-it’s grim. I like to think that rain is fitting.” 

“That’s one way to think of it, I guess.” 

“Oh, really? What’s another way then, Georgie?” Dream gives a slight chuckle.

“That the sky is trying to make it up to us. See, I like the rain. It gives me a sense of...tranquility? It was always calming, even the slight sparks of lightning are satisfying to watch. So, in order to make it up to people that are suffering at the moment, it will rain.” 

“It’s calming huh?” 

“Mhm..” I peer over at him, he’s already lost in thought again. 

“I guess it is, though you’ve never told me about the rain.” 

“I thought it wasn’t important to tell.” 

“It is.” Dream responds a bit too fast for my liking, causing me to have to turn away from him again. I cover my face, god. It’s like highschool all over again. With everything going on, how come he can make it fade into the back of my mind? I fan myself with my shirt, the air from the vents wasn’t that cool and it was humid. Florida wasn’t like London, it wasn’t cool. “We’ll be there in about five minutes.” Dream murmurs to me, or anyone who was listening. I really hope that they’re okay, his sisters that is. They have to be, and when they are okay. It’ll be the five of us in a car, it’ll be crowded, but it’s better than the two of them be...passed on or worse. 

Dream turns into a neighborhood, the houses looked pretty. They were for families, though I don’t see any children playing in the streets. I don’t hear laughter...it’s quiet. As the car moves through the neighborhood, I shake Sapnap awake from the front seat. He jolts awake, looking at me with a angered expression. I then point to the windows of the car, he looks out the windows that reveal the neighborhood. His face goes blank. That’s when Dream slowly brings the car into a driveway. He parks, turning the car off. 

The three of us get out of the car. Dream locks the doors, ensuring that people don’t just hotwire the car back to life for themselves. Looking around, it doesn’t seem too bad here. Then again, some cars in driveways are completely opened and stuff thrown around the yard. Maybe some have corpses in them...maybe not. I feel a hand on my shoulder, turning around I see Sapnap. 

“Come on.” He gently shoves me towards the front door of the house with Dream. 

Dream carefully knocks on the door, hoping to hear shuffling or see a girl peering through the blinds of the front window. There isn’t anything at all. He knocks again, bringing his head to the door. I hear faint pleads come from him, but I could be imagining things. He brings his hand to to doorknob and twists it, it was unlocked.  _ That isn’t a good sign. _

Dream groans, probably cursing his sisters for not locking the door. He opens it to reveal a mess. Sapnap gasps, I reach out to Dream only for Dream to immediately search for his sisters. Sapnap and I walk into the house, seeing the living room a mess. It looks like there was a struggle here. I walk to the kitchen as Sapnap inspects the living room. The kitchen was in the same condition as the living room, though...a familiar color terrorizes me to my core. It was either brown or...red. I can’t be sure, but I carefully inspect it. It smells of what I feared... _ it smelled metallic. _ I carefully compose myself, inspecting even further. Looking around for clues as to how this place ended up so bad. I bring my attention to the mess of the counters, scrambled to be sure. That’s when I noticed that there was a knife stand with a missing knife, so...that blood could be Dream’s sisters’ or it could be those things’ blood. There was hope.

“Sapnap, check this out.” I call over Sap. He makes his way over here, looking at the blood in horror. I turn his face in the direction of the knife set. “What do you make of it?” I mutter, careful not to alert Dream from the other room. 

“Well...that would explain the blood underneath some pillows. In fact, there was a whole pool of the stuff.” He covers his mouth for a brief second, only after swallowing does he continue. “I did notice droplets of blood leading to the hallway Dream went down though. I don’t want to think too optimistically though...it’s a lot of blood. The struggle seemed like someone was certainly losing though...like it was heavily one sided.” 

“Is there a backdoor?” I pondered outloud. Sapnap snaps his fingers nodding. He leads me back to the living room, he leads me a little ways past the kitchen. It was a door that lead outside and...it was  _ open.  _ “Jesus how did I not see that before that’s so...obvious. So I think that one of those crazed things broke in then...they do know how to work doorknobs. Not to mention that the front door was also unlocked. It’s not too far fetched to think that they forgot to lock both doors.” 

“Then that leads to two primary questions left based off of that theory of yours…” 

“Yeah.”

“One, where are they now? And two, how the hell did that thing get into their backyard?” 

“My thoughts exactly-” That’s when Dream drags his feet into the living room...a look of sadness plastered onto his face. My mind halts, seeing him collapse to the floor onto his knees. Sapnap and I hurriedly rush over to him, practically gliding on the hard wood floor. Dream bawls...curling up into a ball. I wrap my arms around him tightly, he collapses into my touch. I look at Sapnap, causing him to nod and look around to see what Dream saw. I sit there on the floor hugging a broken man, a man that I loved simply as a friend. He cried harder as I made circles into his back. “It’s going to be okay, Dre--Clay. Everything is going to be okay, we’re here for you.” 

“George they’re…” He tries to talk only to choke on his own tears. 

“You don’t have to say it...I know.” Dream’s arms are removed from his own knees to my torso instead. He hugs me tighter than ever before, as if he’s afraid to lose me too. Maybe he is...but I’m not going away that easily.

“Ge-George please...please promise me that you won’t be like them. That you...you won’t be like them..” Dream cries harder into my shoulder, wetting my t-shirt. As if a wet shirt matters--I hug him like this is our last time to hug each other. 

“I promise, Clay. I promise that I will survive with you to the end. I promise that you’ll always have me.”

Sapnap walks back into the room, a look of strained stoicism plastered onto him. He sits beside us, waiting for when Dream is ready to listen to what probably happened.  _ Probably, god...we don’t even know what happened. Yet, here we are...suffering.  _ After an hour, Dream pulls away from the embrace, he wipes tears off of his face. His eyes are puffy and wet, they glisten. They threaten to cry again. I grab his hand, gently squeezing it. He takes it and doesn’t let go. He clears his throat...clearly not ready for what we have to do next. He sniffles still trying to compose himself, though he fails. He lost his entire family...god…

“We,” Dream pauses, trying to process anything that floods his mind. “We have to…” He covers his mouth again, pain flooding his face more so than before. I squeeze his hand reassuringly. “We have to make sure that they’re fully...dead. We have to…” He pauses again, losing thought again. He crumbles once more, causing me to bring him into another hug. 

“We’ll bury them--” Sapnap assures only for Dream to cut him off. 

“We don’t have time to-to do that..” He mutters into my neck. My eyes widen from him saying this...he can’t even bury his own family. I remember how he placed the blanket over Schlatt hours earlier. Hours? It felt like centuries of anguish.

“What should we do instead?” Sapnap looks down, clearly saddened by the pressing issue of time. Dream hugs me tighter, and I turn to Sap. 

“I know what we have to do, we had to do the same thing to Schlatt.” 


	6. I Got You Covered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesus...he lost all of his family, didn't he? Is there something I can do? I don't know, this--THIS IS PRETTY FUCKED UP.

The same thing that we did to Schlatt, huh? We just have to settle for it...though burying Dream’s sisters would be better than just placing blankets upon them. However, like Dream said himself; we don’t have time. Sapnap looked at me strangely as I spoke. 

“What did you guys do to him and what the hell do you mean ‘make sure they’re dead’?” He questioned the both of us. “What the fuck did you guys see in that shop?” I look at him as Dream continues to tighten his grasp onto me. I sigh, rubbing circles into Dream’s back again. 

“Schlatt hung himself, Sapnap.” I started, this caused the other to jolt back in shock. “His neck was snapped, he was dead for a little bit. Maybe a couple of hours? Maybe a day?” I gulped, licking my lips. I need to stop being so blunt about it...but how can I not be? I mean...he attacked me for God’s sake! “All that I know is that he was dead and Dream cut him down from the rope. Minutes later, Schlatt gripped my throat trying to sink his teeth into my neck! He only stopped moving after Dream stabbed him in the skull. He tried the heart, the stomach...it didn’t make Schlatt--that  _ thing _ falter. His head was flying everywhere due to his neck already being snapped. He should’ve been dead, but he came back.” I feel the pain of the grip burn my neck once again, as if it was happening all over again.

“Jesus Christ…” Sapnap muttered, pacing around in a circle. “What did--what did you guys do with his body?”

“We placed a blanket over his body after laying his corpse neatly on his couch. It was Dream’s idea, not mine.” I feel Dream shake in his breathing, he was crying so hard that his body is having trouble keeping up. “Listen, I’ll take care of him if you can do that. I can help you too if you need me-”

“I got it...so the skull huh? Any relation to the brain at all?”

“I mean, probably.” 

“Figures...maybe you guys should chill in the back yard or maybe the front yard? Maybe look around for anything...useful?” Sapnap takes over, reluctantly I’m sure.

“Can do.” As I say this, Sapnap walks back to the kitchen grabbing a knife. He walks back to the end of the hallway. Dream peers up as Sapnap passes the both of us, Dream immediately digs his head back into the crook of my neck. I pat his back carefully as if one wrong move could shatter him. “Dream, we should get you some water and I’m sure that you have a headache.” I try to stand up, only for him to hug me closely once more. 

“Please, please don’t leave me…”

“I’m not leaving you, I won’t. We need to make sure that you’re alright, come on.” I release myself from his grasp, holding a hand out for him. He takes it as quickly as I hold it out. Slowly, he rises from the ground. He stumbles a bit, but I make sure that he doesn’t fall over. His other hand is raised to his head. I guessed it, he definitely has a headache. I walk him to the kitchen. “Look away, you probably don’t want to see this.” I mutter, talking about the access blood. He covers his eyes, ensuring he won’t accidentally open them. I carefully look for some bottled water. I check the fridge for anything useful, bingo. I feel the breeze from the fridge, so the electricity hasn’t gone out yet. We’ll probably have electricity and running water in houses for about a week maybe two if we’re lucky. I hand Dream the bottled water. “Drink up, I’m sure your head hurts.” He does so blindly. I look at his puffy eyes, the redness around his nose and eyes. I immediately turn away, it’s so painful to see.

I rummage through cupboards for any supplies on our way to Texas. That’s right, I forgot that we’re heading to Houston after this. I shake my head from my thoughts, I can’t think about that at the moment. Besides, you never forgot. I ended up finding canned goods and water bottles. Anything else would expire easily/not be useful in our current situation. I scan over the messy kitchen, seeing a photo of the family. Dream’s mom, his two sisters, and himself. It’s on the fridge, clumsily stuck on with a magnet. I grab it and tuck it into my pocket, I’m sure that Dream would want this.

I lead the both of us out of the kitchen and into the back yard. So...that’s how one of those things got in. I notice Dream peel his hand off of his eyes, he sees it too. He turns to me, shocked. I wrap an arm around him, bringing him close. The fence was burst through, granted the wood was corroded to fuck. But jesus...what made it so agitated? Where did it even go? 

“GOGY!” A scream comes from the house. Dream and I jolt upwards, I don’t hesitate to run back inside. I bolt down the hallway to where the scream was coming from. Dream follows suit. I see Sapnap holding back one of those things! I feel the knife in my pocket from earlier and quickly get it out. Sapnap was close to losing a chunk of his shoulder until I hastily drive the knife into the creature’s thick skull. I have to use a lot of force to even drive it into the back of it’s head. It falls to the floor, bloodied up and gross looking. I slowly drag the knife out of the newly formed hole in it’s head. I look at the knife, specifically the thick blood on it. This thing was older than Schlatt’s body for sure. I look at Sapnap, who is close to vomiting again.

“Are you okay? No bites or anything?” I start to scan him, moving his shirt collar to see if any bites are present. I get nudged slightly in response.

“I’m...I’m okay. Thank you, that thing was so...strong.” He looks at the ground and kicks it to see if it’s actually dead. “I opened the closet and out came that fucker.” He looks at the closet doors. “There are handprints on it…they managed to not get completely mauled by locking it in there.” I look at Dream who looks around the room, he’s already been in here but it’s as if it’s his first time. He covers his mouth, squeezing his face in the process. I notice that there are figures in the two beds in here, covered in blankets. 

“Th-thank you.” Dream sputters before looking at the duvets of both beds. Sapnap and I give him a moment of silence. It seems to go on for hours, when in reality it only ends up being a minute or two. Sapnap and I huddle closer to him, in case he needs another hug. I look at his face, his eyes are aren’t as bright as they were when we were talking of rain or even conversing in the car. They are dark, stuck in contemplating. He inhales sharply, trying to calm himself. Trying to clear his head. I notice Sapnap in the corner of my eye lay a hand on Dream’s shoulder, calming him in his own way. Dream’s knees buckle before turning to the two of us and walking out of the room. I peer at Sapnap, he just sighs following Dream. I look at the two beds, comforters covering the corpses. I wince, thinking about Schlatt. I hope that the three of them are in a better place, I hope that Dream’s mom is in a better place too. It makes me wonder about my family...if they’re okay. If they’re even alive. I turn and walk out of the damned room, immediately going out of the house. There is nothing left here for us.

Dream tosses the keys to Sapnap, after unlocking the car, and gets into the vehicle. Sapnap looks at me, motioning to the back seat. I shake my head. Sapnap immediately understands where I’m coming from, that Dream probably needs some time to process and think things through. He just needs time. Both Sapnap and I get into the front seats, he obviously goes on the driver’s side though. I place my bag into the backseat with Dream, tucking it in the leg space of the empty seat. I also tap Dream’s knee, getting his attention from the window. I hand him the photo upside-down. He looks at me bewildered for a second but then silently thanks me. He stares at it, tears already reforming in his eyes. I turn to face the front directly, I pull out my phone. 

“What battery percentage is your phone on?” I ask Sapnap. 

“It’s on 45%, you?”

“I have mine on 81%, did you forget to charge your phone last night?”

“I thought I charged it as we were preparing...I guess not.” Sapnap looks down. “We can use my phone though, we’re going to see my family after all. You might still need your phone to communicate with yours.” I stay silent for a bit but then close my phone. I hold my hand out. 

“Okay...but we’ll only use your phone until it hits 20%. Maybe even 15% depending on circumstances.” Sapnap places his phone into my hand, and I immediately search what route we have to use to get to Houston. I see that we could actually get there in 16 hours and 49 minutes, though I don’t even know how much gas we have. Though I could estimate or I could just ask Dream. “Dream one last thing before we go, how much gas do you think you have in this car?” He glances as me for a second but then glues his eyes back at the picture of his family. 

“10 gallons.” 

“Thank you Dream.” I turn back to Sap to which he looks at me. 

“Based upon that, we’ll need to stop for gas at least once. Though, if we had 12 gallons...we’d only need 4.9 more to get to our destination really. But now the bare minimum we need to get along the way is 6.9 gallons. Though…” Sapnap does quick mental math, I butt in though.

“Extra gas could mean we could go even further or go to another location afterwards. It doesn’t hurt to try to get more.” I mention, Sap nods. 

“Okay, I think we’ve roasted in this car long enough.” He turns on the car, looking at the directions I have out. “91, huh? That should lead us to Interstate 75, from there we go to interstate 10…” Sap mutters out loud to no one in particular, though I listen carefully as to not forget. “From there I know where to go, because 10 goes through Houston. I’ve driven on it a lot before, I nearly know it from memory over there.” Sap backs out of the driveway, causing Dream to peer out the window. Looking at his childhood home for the most likely last time, I notice that he wipes his tears with his hands. Of course, he could end up being dehydrated...a price to pay for loss. I’ll have to check in later. 

I mutter directions to Sap every now and then, as in turns and that stuff. I give him his stupid miles rather than kilometres. I still don’t understand why the U.S just had to be special about their system that only they use. It confuses everyone involved...maybe I shouldn’t get into this now. I decide to turn on the radio, I mean I don’t expect anything. I wish that there would be a station out there that would play something, anything, but of course all I’m finding is static upon static. The near silence of the car unsettles me. That’s when one station had a voice pierce through the veil. Sapnap and I jolt up upon hearing an actual voice from the radio box. 

They sound panicky, the connection is also fuzzy but it’s still something. I look at the radio as if the person is going to come crawling out of it. I listen to the message they have to speak. 

_ “I--Is anyone out there listening? God I hope so… _ ” There is a banging from within the studio they’re in. “ _ I’m completely surrounded here, I don’t expect help to come for me now. After all, I was close to dying already. _ ” The person breathes heavily, most likely to calm themselves or maybe they know about their untimely demise is going to be soon. Sap turns the radio up a bit as I mutter the next set of directions. He nods. “ _ I probably sound like a lunatic, hell, who wouldn’t? Those things, whatever they are, ripped apart my co-workers. They bit and gnawed at them. _ ” I look at the radio in horror, Dream staring intensely at it as it talks about the deaths of their co-workers. “ _ I couldn’t do anything...I couldn’t-” _ They gulp. “ _ My name is Carson...last names don’t matter anymore though. I...I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know how to work this station until just now. _ ” He chuckles, probably just to fill the silence but it was still a chuckle. “ _ Truth is, I’m not sure how far the reach is-I’m not even sure if my family or friends can hear this. _ ” Sniffling can be heard, though they stop when the pounding of the doors ring throughout the room again. “ _ I don’t have much time...these things are relentless. Don’t let them catch you off guard, though it’s bound to happen. Why are they so fast? Why are they so strong? _ ” Carson breathes into the mic, causing the sound to startle us. “ _ Make sure you stay in groups...you’ll last longer. _ ” Then there’s static again. 

Sapnap turns the radio off, face full of sadness. I look out the window, seeing more fires and destruction as we drive by. I look at all of the suffering in the streets, the corpses, everything. I bring my knees to my chest, hugging them. If I die by the lack of a seat-belt, I don’t think it would be the worst way to go anyway--what am I thinking? I shake my head. 

Carson huh? Sounded a lot like a certain youtuber...maybe it was him. Just maybe though. I know of him, I don’t think I remember really talking much to him. From what I hear, he can be decently funny and now...he’s probably dead. Who knows though? For all that we know, he just found his way out. Doesn’t sound realistic, but it’s what I want to believe. I mean, we’d truly be fools to think he died and imagine if we saw him again. Wouldn’t that just be the worst thing? All of that grieving over nothing at all. Just torment without a reason at all. 

“I can’t believe all of this.” Sap mutters, looking onto the road. He side-eyes the rear view mirror, looking at the previous shit we’ve seen. “People really do just lose their consideration when the world is ending, huh?”

“I understand it.” I respond. 

“Me too, it’s just that--I don’t know.” He swallows saliva, his adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t think I could ever lose my compassion for others or just start setting shit on fire like that though. I get wanting to wreck some shit, but this is a whole fucking city we’re talking about here. Even then, people leave others to die or to be used as bait.” 

“That’s a good trait, I don’t think I could ever lose that either. We all should work together on this, at least that makes the most sense to me.” Sap looks at me for a second before scoffing.

“I wish that others would have that common sense with you, but that sadly isn’t the case at all. People will do whatever they need to, just to ensure that they will live even a smidgen longer. Sad but true. We see this countless times, Gogy.” Sap drones. 

“I know, I just said it makes the most sense to work together. Not that it was the actual information, dimwit.” I smirk slightly until I remember the current situation again. 

“Dimwit!” He repeats. “Bitch please, it’s not even December.” He laughs and I mimic him. 

We keep going forward, though Sap has to weave in between cars some times. Some of those cars are broken down, some are crashed, but the more unsettling ones are those that have been abandoned. Those abandoned cars have the doors still open, no supplies seem to be in the car at all. Those types are those that scare me, meaning that the people simply ran out of gas. They could be eaten alive if they’re not careful, if we’re not careful we’ll end up like them. I feel a slap on my shoulder! Ow! Jesus! I glare at Sap, the one that hit me, but all he does is point towards the back of the car. I look carefully seeing a passed out Dream...no wonder. He exhausted himself from crying, god...there has to be something that I can do. Something that we can do...but we can’t do anything. We’re forced to just watch him suffer, we can hold our hand out to him...but he might not take it. He could shut himself off or worse. I don’t want to think about worse.

I turn back properly, tapping my foot quietly. I lean my face into my hand, looking out the window. At least the view of the surrounding landscape isn’t as shitty as the roads themselves. Though, clouds began to rumble with life and energy. It’s going to rain after all. 

“You know, I heard what you said to Dream on the way there.” Sap looks up at the sky for a few seconds before looking at what he’s doing.

“Huh?” 

“You know, the rain?” 

“Oh. Yeah?”

“Well, it would appear that it is going to rain after all. Though, I find it ironic compared to your definition.”

“So?”

“Damn, you’re really out here giving me nothing huh?” He chuckles sadly, going quiet in the matter of seconds. “To you, it’s calming. Yet, there’s nothing to be calm about. If anything, we should be panicking right now. Panicking about a lot of things.” Sap sighs. 

“I mean, yeah.” I turn back to the side window, looking at the clouds threatening to cry any moment now. “But I think that something calming could ease us, even slightly. I think that rather than panicking, we should think about our situation from an outside perspective. Rain allows you to open your mind like that--or at least it does so for me.” A slight smile begins to take shape onto my face, which I can’t really stop. “Maybe that’s what we need?” 

“Maybe…” Sap trails off. “God, it’s humid out though.”

“Yeah, it is.” 

“How can a person be calm like this?” Sap snickers. I gasp, turning to him swiftly. 

“You know damn well I was talking about the cool rain rather than-” 

“I know.” Sap interrupts me. “You are so fun to poke at.” He laughs. I grin, hopeful that we might just save our moral after all this. 

“God, you’re annoying. Did you know that?”

“Of course, Gogy.” He winks, I roll my eyes playfully. I then feel my face drop, thinking ahead to when we actually get to Texas. We’re probably going to separate, at least from Sapnap. He needs to be with his family, unless he wants us to stay there. I look at him again, examining his features. Dark brown hair, stubble, even that stupid headband he wears. If we were to part, in 16-ish hours, would this be one of the last moments I have with him? This plus Dream missing out on this time we have left with him. He must’ve noticed me staring or maybe the silence got to him again, because he was saying something again. “--ogy? Are you okay dude?” He peels his eyes from the road and at me. 

“I’m just...thinking.” I turn away from him. 

“About?”

“About...what happens after we get there. After we make it to your family and you guys are reunited.”

“Oh--OH.” He looks back at the road again, finally getting my thought process. “Why are you thinking about that?” He questions.

“Are we going to go our separate ways? You’ll have your family and surely Dream and I-” 

“You both can stay.” He interrupts yet again, but this time he stammers on his words. “T-that is if you guys wanna at least.” He rubs the back of his neck, nervous for whatever reason.

“I’d like to, though I’d have to ask Dream. We don’t want him wandering around alone out there.” 

“Of course, of course.” He nods. 

“Wait, that means I’d get to finally meet your cat!” I exclaim.

“FUCK!” Sap curses, laughing. I look out the window again, seeing a sign as we continue down the road.  _ Port St. Lucie Ahead _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, make sure to sub--or don't. I mean, it's free like the Green Man says soooo..
> 
> I should probably start outlining things that I want to happen, huh...oh wELL :)


	7. Trust Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> T-they're dead...aren't they? All-all of them...how am I supposed to-why? I...fuck...

. . .

I open my eyes, jolting upwards from the plush mattress beneath me. I look around, sweat drenching my sheets underneath the comforter. A shaky breath escapes my mouth...what the fuck was that? I shake my head, already forgetting the dream I had--if I could even call it a dream. I hesitantly get out of bed, making it as I feel the cold air hit the sweat on my back. Maybe I should’ve worn a shirt? No, then that would be completely drenched. I look around my room, nothing out of the ordinary. I peer back at my bed, with now a cat carefully kneading the corner of the bed. A smile creeps onto my face as Patches lays down on the corner of the bed. I crouch beside the bed, looking up at her. I decidedly boop her nose before I carefully slip on some slippers.  _ Today is going to be a great day, I can feel it. _ I then exit the bedroom, thinking about the possibility of meeting the ones I love. 

Suddenly, I am now driving in a car! I look at the road, thinking about meeting Sapnap and George in real life finally! I didn’t wear anything too out of the usual; just some jeans, Nike shoes, and a white t-shirt. Though, I did try to look a bit better by finally combing my hair and by wearing a green flannel. Okay, so maybe I also decided to wear like one dog-tag necklace...and maybe a few rings-it’s only because I wanna make a great impression on both of them! I am very excited, I wonder what content we’ll make and such. Maybe this time we could actually vlog! I should really not tease the audience so much with promises like that though...

I blink and wind up waiting at the dull airport, god they somehow manage to make this place too cold but too hot at the same time. They manage to make the scuffed floors look clean compared to the walls...I really fucking hate airports. But, the plus side is that I’m finally going to see them! In like a few minutes...god, a few minutes. I hold the sign up as the announcer announces the flights coming in. The static reminds me of something--is that? It’s him! Sapnap is going down the escalator, I start to run at him. He does the same as we clash into a hug. It’s bone-crushing! God, I love hugs like this. 

I open my eyes again to be parting from George’s arms, the three of us talk as if we aren’t in person. As if everything was just as how it always was. I was leading them to my car, so I could drive them away from the dull disgusting airport. They continue to talk, me occasionally budding in. I realize that...we’re all finally together. At last. I smile and hug them again, just to make sure that this is real. They both laughed, teasing me about my affectionate nature. I shrug, noting that they should be more affectionate with me.

I blinked and now we’re at my house eating pizza, though it arrived late due to the joint getting too many orders. The delivery girl was very apologetic, yet we tipped her well. She was probably going to be dealing with plenty more people after us, so it’s not a big deal. We play Uno and finally notify Twitter of our meeting up. I cuddle with Patches though she jumps off as soon as both Sapnap and George lay their heads on my lap. Snickering I boop both of their noses. We watch movies all night, not sleeping. Call this a classic sleepover from middle school--but make it one that has been in the works for years.

I turned away for a second only to see that we’re now at a beach. I splash George with the salty waters as Sapnap tackles me into the depths. It’s all well until...clouds start to threaten our beach day. As it begins to trickle rain, we all hurriedly rush to the car. However, as soon as we notice it’s just our car in the parking lot, George starts to splash around in the puddles. That’s right, he loves the rain. I stop to look at him, the rain washing away all of the sand from his legs. Sapnap begins to grab George’s hands and they spin around, laughing. That’s when lightning strikes the water in the ocean, I peer over to where it was. The sound of laughter fading. I look at my hands, noticing I’m no longer wearing my swimming trunks but what I wore the day before. I was covered in blood, my hands included. The rain seeps into my clothes, slowly removing the blood as it continues. I fall to the ground, remembering. Schlatt, Patches, my mom, my sisters…

The rain is cruel, the lightning threatening. It zaps the ocean, the puddles around me. Finally it hits my head, a shock fills my entire body as I scream out in pain. I look at my arms, veins pulsating. I feel tears escape my eyes, the pain is unbearable! I close my eyes, tensing up. 

___

  
  


I blink my eyes carefully and I hesitate to keep them open. I hear George and Sapnap talking, but why bother listening? I turn over, facing the ceiling of my car. How the fuck am I to think or feel? How...why? I blink back tears, though it doesn’t pan out too well. The car suddenly swerves, causing me to roll out of the seats. Sapnap curses as he puts the car in park. I silently slip back into my seat, feeling the photo in my pocket. It’s crisp edges shout at my finger tips, as if to warn me about gripping it too hard. The edges seethe a warning, it cuts my skin slightly. I grit my teeth, carefully wiping the tears off of my face. The salty tears sizzle within my cuts, creating more pain. I look out the windshield, seeing the car crash before us. It blocked this entire road. 

The car is turned off to save gas, the three of flood out of the car. I stretch out my arms, legs even, from the sleepiness of my bones.  _ My mind even. _ I shake my head, looking ahead once more. Panicked mutters are heard from both Sapnap and George. I sigh, removing the flannel from my torso. I open the car door and toss it into the car. I shut the door, feeling the eyes of the others piercing my chest. I am left with jeans and a white t-shirt now. I ruffle my hair, walking towards the wreck. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” Sapnap questions, readjusting his headband.

“We need this road. So, we need to clear it.” I huff, peaking at the damage of the three cars. It’s clear what happened here. A car from the other road, leading to the opposite direction, lost control and hit two cars over here. I’m sure that it would’ve been covered by the news had all of this shit not be happening. I probably would be looking at it on my phone, probably mentioning it to Sapnap or George. We would be streaming most likely about now. That would be in a different world though, not this one. In a different reality, we’d be doing that. I cringe, noticing that two cars have to be pushed. One can be driven though. 

“Oh. Right.” Sapnap breaks me from my thoughts, he carefully touches my shoulder. “I’ll help you then.” He gives a small smile, it threatens my entire standing. It threatens my entire want to be calm. To put on this fucking facade of being okay enough to do this. I take a shaky breath, nodding carefully. 

“We’ll have to push two cars, one can be driven.” I tell him, showing the damage by a simple gesture.

“I’ll help too.” George pipes in. I shake my head.

“No, we need a look out. Those... _ things _ could be on our tail from the sound of the car. By what we know, they eat others.” I quickly shoot him down. He looks frustrated but nods. He climbs on top of my car, sitting on the roof of it. He keeps a watchful eye, I’m glad that he didn’t fight me on it. I could tell that he wanted to. 

I open car number one, the one that we can actually drive. I gag, smelling the rot from inside. I turn away from the smell--I didn’t see the backseat before. I sure do now. It was a dead animal, a dog to be more specific. It was trapped inside the car, it died from the heat. It was boiled alive. I feel tears pricking my eyes, remembering that this could be her. Patches. She could be dead...she might as well be. I think I must’ve been taking too long, because Sapnap walked over to me. He smells the smell, sees the dead dog, and gets it. All of that within seconds. He leads me over to one of the wrecked cars, he mutters that he’ll drive it into the sidelines. I quietly thank him, breathing in the fresh air. The humidity hurts, but I’ve been accustomed to it. I peer back at George, catching his eyes on me. He hastily turns away though, avoiding eye-contact. I must be pitiful...Jesus.

Sapnap gets out of the car, that is now in the ditch, and gasps for clean air. Air that doesn’t reek of death. Air that is humid and stuffy. He gladly accepts it as he is reconnected with me again. I make sure to peer through the windows this time, not wanting to make the same mistake twice. I inch closer to the windows, practically bringing my forehead directly to them. So far so clear...BAM! I jump back, breathing hard. It’s one of those things in there, it scared me. I look at it, seeing how glass penetrated its face. I turn back to the windshield of the car, yeah...there was a huge blood stain on the inside. In fact, the window was damn near broken. They didn’t have their seatbelt on. What a way to go...I cringe. I don’t know how to kill this thing...we don’t exactly have--GEORGE. 

“George, you still got your knife?” I question. He turns back over to me again, nodding. I quickly walk over to where he is as he hops off the roof of the car. He opens the car door in the front passenger side, I come up behind him and as he turns around...he jumps. 

“Jesus Dream! Why are you so close?” He questions, trying to space us apart. I feel my body flare up, tense up even. I take a couple steps back, seeing George get red in the face. Must need sunscreen or something. I trust him enough to take care of himself though. He extends his hand out to me, knife in hand. 

“Sorry...thanks.” I mutter before I walk back over to the reanimated corpse in the car. I hear George slam the car door, and the car roof shifts as he sits upon it yet again. I look at the creature clawing at the door, it reaches for the door’s handle. “SHIT-” was all that I could muster as it leap from the car. This causes Sapnap and George to watch over me carefully, Sapnap running into action. I take a quick breath, letting it come towards me. I then kick it’s knee. Hard. It topples over and I pin it from its back. I jam the knife into the back of its skull, killing it. This is my second one...it dawns on me. This is the second one of these fucking things that have tried to kill me or at the very least take a bite out of me. 

Sapnap’s eyes are widened, having seen what just went down. He was a few feet away from me now, he must’ve been scared shitless. If I had done one thing wrong, things could’ve went south very quickly. Quicker than saying the word-

“Holy shit…” Sapnap comes closer to me, a grin starting to form on his face. “You killed it. You got it good!” He wraps his arm around my neck, bringing me closer. I smile slightly, only he could bring my spirits up like this in an instant, huh? To pull me out of the chaos of my thoughts. 

“I did, didn’t I?” I pry. 

“Hell yeah, dude!” He chuckles. “Now, let’s get that car out of the way. Shall we?”

“We shall.” 

I get into the crashed car and bring the shift into neutral. As I sit in the seat where the person died, shivers go up my spine.  _ If that thing was here...was the person bit? How long was this person driving? _ I shake my head at the ridiculous thought, there’s no way it could be that right? I get out of the car, slamming the door, and meet Sapnap at the back of the vehicle. It’s the part that is not damaged. The car we moved previously stopped both of the cars via their front side. So, the engines are so mangled that they’re undriveable. Sapnap and I begin to push the car.

“Sap, if you could turn the wheel was I push the car-” I begin but he interrupts by simply doing the task asked of him. I didn’t even get to finish my sentence...is he upset? I mean I get it that the situation is...terrible. Maybe I should ask him about it? What would I even say? What is there to say? We’re in a really shitty situation and-

“Are you going to push or…” Sapnap shouts dragging the last word. 

“Sorry!” I manage to yell back. I start to push the car again, the sweltering heat starting to blaze into my back. If I’m not careful, the dog tag might burn my skin. I feel the heat build up behind my skin, it continues to build up until it breaks into sweat. Sapnap hops out of the car and I push the car off of the edge of the road. Only one more to go, then we can go back to the car and drive. Sapnap goes over to the other car, adjusting his headband again as he walks over. He seems very adamant about doing this quickly. As I pace over there, Sapnap looks into the car and clears it. He puts the car into neutral as I get over there. Though, if the car was empty...where is the person now? There has to be a person from it, or what about the other person? The people that were driving the other cars, are they even still alive? 

I begin the push the car with Sapnap again, this time the heat getting to the both of us. As this rate, we’ll be too exhausted to even drive. Sapnap nudges me as he stops pushing, he gestures to the front of car. This time I’m going to be the one steering, turning it as he slowly pushes the car. I can’t help but to feel my mind wander as I sit there turning the wheel--

“GUYS!” George hops off the car, and I look in the rear-view mirror. Oh fuck. OH SHIT. “GUYS WE HAVE A PROBLEM! HURRY MOVE IT NOW!” George screams, scrambling to help us push the car. I get out knowing that Sapnap and George can handle it, I need to get the car started. NOW. 

“Sapnap, George, you guys work on the car! I’ll get the car ready! GO GO GO GO!” I shout, feeling my lungs and vocals tinge with pain as I scream and run at the same time. George passes by me as I run towards the car--Jesus Christ...that’s a whole flood of them. I shake my head, getting into the car. I turn the keys in the ignition, the car roars to life! I notice that George and Sapnap are done pushing the car and I begin to drive towards them--Sapnap already prepares to get back into the backseat. I break, looking into the rear-view yet again. FUCK! They both get into the car and I step on it. Sapnap looks out the rear window in awe, he gives a stutter breath. He turns to George and glares at him. 

“How could you not see that? That is a huge mass of them! We were so close to being demolished by those-those-” Sapnap shouts at the other. I cringe, pressing the gas harder. 

“What do you mean! I told you guys! I didn’t know that they were so fast!” George argues back. 

“As soon as you saw something you should’ve told us! Shouted at us to rush! As soon as you caught sight of them!” Sapnap continues, tapping his leg harshly on the floor of the car. 

“I DID!” 

“You clearly didn’t! They were right on our asses back there--there was a whole clear view for miles! They aren’t going 10 miles per second George! That’s literally impossible-”

“What’s impossible is the dead becoming reanimated!” George glares as the ground, pissed off. I feel my hands shake as I see the sea of the dead fall behind us more and more. George clearly didn’t mention them as soon as he could’ve, they aren’t at god-like speeds. They run like normal people. “Sorry that I can’t control the speed they run at!” 

“George just admit it! You’re LYING to us. You could’ve gotten us killed!” Sapnap grabs George’s shoulder, clenching it harshly. George slaps his hand away. Forcing himself to the very corner of the seat. 

“Don’t fucking touch me!” 

“Why didn’t you tell us? Come on, you at least owe us that much.” Sapnap snarls, gripping his knees as they both bounce up and down. 

“I WAS DISTRACTED OKAY?” George finally snaps. “DOES THAT MAKE YOU HAPPIER? DO YOU FEEL SATISFIED?” He brings his knees to his chest, hugging them tightly. “Things have been...so-so  _ fucked _ lately. I was thinking about my family and...I was thinking about what we’ve seen. I’ve been thinking so much lately...it...it hurts!” George sniffles. I bite my lip, peering over at him for just a second. The car falls silent, not even the murmurs of the two remain. I feel my mind slip me, just getting lost in the road. The streets. “I...I’m scared.” George finally breathes out after what feels like days. It felt like  _ years _ even, though it was only a minute. “I don’t know how you guys are still acting like everything is fine--I wanted to try to be like that! I…” George opens his mouth to say something again, but he tucks his head back into his knees. Sapnap sighs, looking at George. 

“I have to, Gogy.” He sadly smiles, or at least it sounds like he does. “I want to make sure that you both still have hope, ya know?” He gives a small, sad, chuckle. “Tch...I know things are fucked up. God, I wish that we were at Dream’s house streaming whatever. I wish we were laughing, I wish we weren’t here.” Sapnap continues.  _ They’re miserable, Clay.  _ What? What was-I look at the rear-view mirror yet again, there isn’t anything behind us anymore. What was that?

“Me too.” George sniffles again. They both don’t wear their seat-belts...why am I adamant about that now? I mean-- _ that one guy was killed because they didn’t wear their seatbelt. Almost went straight through the windshield, almost. Do you want that to be George or Sapnap? Are do you not care about them at all?  _ I shake my head bewildered. 

“Dream?” Sapnap quietly mumbles at first. “Are you alright?” 

“I-” I begin to speak but I can’t think of anything.

“Of course he’s not alright, Sap.” George whispers. Why are you whispering? 

“Obviously, but he seems out of it. Dream? I can take the wheel, I can handle it.” Sapnap offers. 

“I got this, trust me.” I sigh, looking at the road. “I need a good distraction anyways, but uh...I think that the both of you need some rest. Maybe I could pull over and the both of you could get in the back seat?” I change the offer, perking the ears of the both of them but they both shake their heads. 

“No, we shouldn’t waste resources. But, if you’re sure you can drive-” Sapnap 

“I can, Sap.” I sigh. “I think that you both need breaks, I’ve got my hours of writhing in already.” I give a gentle smile.  _ They’re fucking dead, Clay. Why do you down-play it? _ “For now, please put on your seat-belts. Just try to...relax?” I feel tears wanting to crash down my face, but I manage to keep them in. “If I can’t drive anymore, we’ll swap okay?”

“Okay, Dream.” Sapnap nods, laying down on the backseats. I suppose he can’t buckle up anyways, but George does. He mutters something. But I didn’t quite catch it...oh well. I better be in for the long haul. If we’re lucky we’ll hopefully be by Orlando to trade off. Hopefully, I can forget about what’s happened for long enough. 

George then taps my hand that is on the steering wheel, or the right one that is closest to him, and looks at me. I tilt my head a bit, only for him to open his mouth to say something. He doesn’t get anything out though. I look at his shaking hand, after glancing at the road, and take it. I squeeze it gently, supposedly being reassuring. Hopefully reassuring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy Howdy--we finally are looping back to Dream! Isn't that neat? Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed reading the chapter! It always makes my day when people enjoy stuff-oh and if you see mistakes; no you don't :). 
> 
> Until next week, take care! 
> 
> (Also cheers to my first comment last chapter, that was very cool!)


	8. Talk About Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holding hands helps ease me somehow, but how can I ease up? I-I can't just not think about them. I can't just not wonder what the fuck to do. I can't let myself slip though...I just fucking can't.

Holding hands is different when you’re driving, or when you’re comforting someone whilst driving. It’s just different, especially when you aren’t too well either. It’s comforting everyone involved in the interaction. Occasionally, I rub my thumb on the back of his hand. George seems to appreciate the way that I try to help him, though I still have to drive. I can’t help but think about what’s happened though, maybe I should think about things objectively? Remove the emotion and try to figure some things out. After all, going for a long drive can help a person think. Maybe, this was a blessing in disguise. Who knows? What I do know is that the clouds continue to form, the humidity continues to rise. It’s truly a wonder how Sapnap is able to pass out so quickly sometimes. It’s something else, he’s always the one falling asleep in calls too. Maybe he just likes sleep, hell I’m sure that he does. 

“-eam?” George mumbles. I clear my thoughts and look at him for a second before my eyes become glued to the road again. 

“Hm?” I hum out. 

“I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about something.” George hesitates before stuttering back on his words. “Uh that is if you wanted to of course! If you want to be in the silence of a car, that’s perfectly fine too-” 

“Sure. What do you want to talk about?” I cut him off, knowing that he can drag on for a while. He has a tendency to rant more than both Sapnap and I, though I have the tendency to overthink. Sapnap has the tendency to turn things into an argument quickly though. All together, we mash up well. At least in my opinion. 

“What were the plans that we would be doing if everything wasn’t going on?” George asks rather quickly, it seems like he’s been begging to ask this. Begging that he’d eventually get to know what our alternate selves would be doing. 

“Well, I know that we would’ve ordered pizza last night as we did. We would probably be streaming around this time, you know because it’s 2pm?” George nods in my peripheral vision. “I didn’t have too much planned, as I assumed that the both of you would want to do separate things than what I could’ve come up with. I know is that we would’ve eventually gone to the beach.”  _ Just like the nightmare… _ ”We would’ve went to get icecream afterwards or maybe popsicles! Wouldn’t that be neat?”  _ How can you think about that now, your family is fucking dead. _ I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from breaking down. I need to hold this shit in until at least Orlando. 

“Yeah...it would be. Do you think that we’ll ever actually get to do that? That there will be an end to this?” George picks his words meticulously, probably not wanting to insult what I think might happen. Or maybe it’s a false hope thing.  _ Of course it’s false-hope.  _

“I…” Hesitantly, I take a shaky breath. It makes George squeeze my hand tighter, I give him the look of appreciation. “I honestly don’t know. Even if there is an end to this, my life--everyone’s lives would never be the same as it once was. Even if those things die off or get cured.”  _ That’s a bit too nicely worded, bud.  _ I cringe at the thoughts trying to break my exterior, trying to make me pull over and give the wheel to the exhausted 19 year old. I won’t budge, I won’t. I can’t. “Though, it is a nice thing to look forward to--rather than just survive.” After a few seconds of a comfortable silence, I break it once more. “How about you? What do you think?” I probe for his thoughts on the matter. There has to be a reason George asked after all.

“I think that...there will be an end to this. One day at least.” He puts on a small, simple, smile. He turns to me, a little grin already brightening the car’s dim atmosphere. “Then I’d get to finally see how ridiculous you look swimming.” He giggles, his voice about to throw in the towel. We need some water, too bad it’s in the trunk right? 

“Psh-you wish Goggles.” I tease, a headache forming in my skull. It rattles my brain, poking at the back of my eyes. It stings. “Ugh..” I squint my eyes, pain spreading throughout my entire skull. 

“Dream...did you not drink any fucking water?” George crosses his arms, removing his hand from mine. I cringe, nodding. “God, you are a fucking idiot.” George unbuckles himself and climbs into the back seat.

“Careful!” I whisper shout, only to get the tone of shouting. 

“Yeah, yeah.” He groans, opening the middle slot of the seat that leads to the trunk. “You’re so stupid you know that?” 

“I’m not the one climbing over a sleeping person in a moving car.” I look at the road signs, trying to get a good idea of where we are. Seeing a sign, I immediately know how much longer I’m probably going to drive. We’re about an hour away from Orlando, not bad...not good. I check the gas as I hear shuffling around in the back. I turn to look--what the fuck! George already grabbed two water bottles and some frosted animal crackers...shit. Those are probably so melted-god damn it. He closes the middle counsel in the back and places the waters in the front cup holders. He also tosses the frosted animal crackers to his seat. I look back at the empty road, avoiding some stray cars here and there. George is eventually back in his seat, buckled up, and he opens one of the disposable water bottles. He hands it to me. 

“Drink.” 

“You don’t have to baby me-”

“I’m not babying you, now drink.” He shoves it closer to my face. I remove a hand from the wheel and take it. 

“Thanks, George.” I mutter before taking a swig. Of course it’s not gonna cure the ache right away, but it is a start. I take another, making sure beforehand that I can do so safely. Before I know it, half of the bottle is gone. I hand it back to George, who puts the cap back onto it. He smiles, setting it back into the cup holder. 

“You were pretty thirsty huh?” 

“Yep.” 

“Are you hungry?” He opens the bag of probably melted frosted animal crackers. His face is one of shock. “These aren’t too terribly melted.” He notes, grabbing one with two fingers. He then turns to me. “Open your mouth.” 

“George-”

“Dream, you haven’t eaten anything since last night. Now, open up.” He brings his hands even closer to my face again. I groan, turning towards him. I open my mouth, eyes glued to the road. George hums as he gently tosses it into my mouth. Not wanting to get his hands all gross. I close my mouth and turn back normally, munching on it. The sweetness of it is enough to made a toddler cry, but...it’s something. In fact, I didn’t realize I was so hungry. My stomach growled, crying out for more of the sugary mess. George also took one for himself, smiling as he ate it. “Thirsty and hungry, huh?”

“Shut up.” I breathe out, a small laugh escaping my mouth. 

“You know, Dream,” George begins. I look at him for a brief second, seeing his eyes glued to mine in that spilt second. He looked so...serious. “You should really take care of yourself, you’re our leader after all.” He picks up another cracker, bringing it towards me. “It would be devastating to see you…” He cringes, an expression mixed with pain appears. I open my mouth, and he gently places the cracker into it. I close it, chewing gently. “If you can’t take care of yourself, I’m going to have to take over that role. Make you live. You do owe it, you know? To those that you’ve grieved over, to those that have helped you.” This doesn’t seem like George...but it’s still him. We hardly talk this serious unless it’s some of the few times we tall really late in the night. So late where the other has a serious issue. He’s called me more than I’ve called him, but it’s still nice that he cares. That he’s paying attention. Sapnap is more...moral if anything. George is all about the finer details. 

“Thank you.” That’s all that I can muster. A simple ‘thank you’. What the hell am I supposed to say? In this current situation...there isn’t a guide. “I’m sorry that I can’t say more to you-”

“I know.” George tosses another cracker into his mouth, relishing the taste. “You’ve been there for me, more than I’ve been there for you in the past.” He sighs. “I can’t really articulate my feelings very well...you know that. I just wanted to let you know that I…” 

“I know.” I pull a smirk, knowing that I’ve said that a lot. In our past late-night conversations at least. Our DM’s, our calls, even in the little things. I love him, he’s one of the greatest friends I’ll ever have. Sapnap is the other greatest friend. I’m glad that I was finally able to meet them, though the circumstances could’ve have been any worse. 

“Jeez, do you really have to pull one over on me like that?”

“Yeah, I do, Georgie.” I wink, starting to act like myself again.  _ You should have no right to be happy right now, people you love are dead- _

“I see that look in your eye, Dream.” George carefully articulates. “Just let everything go for once, don’t worry about your reputation. You don’t have to do that with us, remember? Let everything go.” George winces, a sad smile appearing once more. My mouth is left open, and he simply slips a cracker in. “It’s okay, right now especially. It’s just us at the moment, that has to be easier than both Sapnap and me.” 

“You...you’re right.” I sigh, rubbing my face. Chewing the cracker, careful not to bite my cheek or tongue on accident. Shit hurts. 

“Of course I am, I’m me.” George grins cheekily, tossing another cracker into his mouth. “So?”

“So?”

“You want to talk about it?” He asks me. For a moment in time, I freeze. Stuck in between what I want to say versus what I should say. I blink twice, forcing myself to get lost into the road again.

“I don’t know George, I don’t think now is a good time.” I scratch the back of neck carefully. I look at the signs we pass by, we’re 30 minutes away from Orlando now. George nods as he thinks.

“Well, it’s okay that you don’t want to talk about it. We could sit in silence if you want.” George munches on another cracker, extending a cracker to my face. I open my mouth, letting him drop it in. 

“Naw, I think that you should talk about something.” 

“About what?”

“Anything you want to.” A smile forms onto my face, faker than ever. I am appreciative that he isn’t forcing me to spill my guts...but it still eats at me. What the fuck am I supposed to do? If there even is an after this. The other nods and then starts to babble about what his next video plan was going to be or what his next stream could’ve been.  _ It’s bittersweet if anything. _ I try my best to pay attention to him, feeling my control over my thoughts wearing thin. 

“Well you already know that I was planning to stream from your set-up, but I brought my camera over for vlogging. I thought that we could do one of those streams where your face would always be off camera but your body, hands, arms, whatever could be in frame.” George pauses, looking for my reaction. “I thought that the fans would like that...I know that I would.” What? I look at him, he stares into my eyes. Searching for anything...why is he-he grabs my hand again. A tear falls down my face, a gentle smile appearing on his. “I would’ve liked to do so many things, Dream. Just to laugh with you more than cry, but I would like that too. I just wanted the three of us-the  _ both of us _ …” George hesitates, opening his mouth to say something. Nothing ever comes out. I look back at the road, seeing the exit for Orlando. We’ll be passing by there, I should probably take a break. I start to slow down, only for George to grip my hand tighter. I peer back at him, he looks flustered. No doubt to the weather...though...no. Nope. 

“I should let Sap take over, George.” 

“Let him, would I be able to go in the backseat with you though?” He asks, holding his hand against mine that’s on the steering wheel. I bring my eyes back to the road, slowing to a complete stop in the middle of the road. I nod, parking the car. He lets go of my hand, letting me unbuckle and open the car door. I slam it, about to open the backseat door. I reach my hand out--until something slams me into the car side! I crane my neck to see it’s one of those things! I turn over, avoiding it biting my back. I hold its shoulders, pressing my back against the car! 

“Fu-fuck!” I shout, shoving it away from me. It stumbles on itself, faltering to the ground. I peer inside the car to see George about to get out. The thing still comes after me, sprinting to get anything in it’s stomach. I kick it’s knee in, it falls onto the ground again. With this time, George scrambles to get over to where I am. I notice the shining knife in his hand, did he clean it? The thing comes bolting after him this time, my eyebrows furrow. I immediately tackle the thing down, bashing it’s skull into the ground with a THUNK! It still moves though, trying to move its hands to dig into my flesh. I keep my hands firm around it’s wrists. “Stab it!” I grunt, the struggle getting harder to control. George nods, swiftly kneeling and gliding the blade through its thick skull. The cracking sound fills the air, the squirms stop. I get off the corpse, offering a hand to George. He yanks the knife out of the skull, rising off of the ground with my help. 

“That was..” He looks at the knife, stuck in his own brain. I hear more footsteps though...lots of them.  _ How many people were in Orlando again?  _ I turn to see thousands of the dead roaming, all of them...headed our way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy Howdy! Tis' I , back at it again with the update ;). 
> 
> Hope that y'all like it!
> 
> Thanks for reading! I appreciate you!


	9. Quiet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was really having a good blank dream--until those honkers messed that up for me! Dream woke me up, George was panicking--what in the fresh hell did I wake up to this afternoon?

“Sapnap!” A voice yells at me to wake up, desperate. “SAPNAP!” It shouts louder. I blink my eyes, looking at the ceiling before me. Suddenly, I am shaken to be fully awake! I sit up, scratching my head. 

“Huh?” I mumble out, my voice low and scratchy. 

“Get up we have to go!” the voice is clearer, more apparent to who it is. Why would I--that’s right. We’re in the beginnings of an apocalypse. I look at the person shaking me, Dream, with a look of panic falling onto my face...I think. Maybe it looks worse due to the sleepiness nature of just waking up but- “Sapnap!” Dream shakes me harder. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but you have to drive. There’s a whole hoard of them. We have to go now!” Dream gulps, panic seeping more into his voice. I notice George getting into the other seat next to me, he looks out the window, fear taking over his face. I get out of the car, my brain finally processing what is happening. I notice that the car is turned off and hop into the driver’s seat.  _ Who turned it off? Probably George, trying to help of course--but honking up. _ Dream slams the back-passenger door, he taps his foot from anxiety. I turn the key in the ignition, looking out the window as I do...what the honk! There’s thousands of them! I turn the key in the ignition again, it’s not starting. 

“Sapnap, why aren’t we driving off?” George snaps his head over to me. I turn the key again, feeling sweat begin to form on my forehead.  _ No...no, no, no, no, no. This can’t be happening. _ I turn it again, the engine not going through with what I want it to do. “Sap-” 

“I’m not-,” My voice cracks, adrenaline pumping. I turn the key again, looking out the window. Those things are just wandering, not in a rush at all. I turn the key again, noticing that a few perk their heads up in our direction. “It’s not starting.”  _ Noise...is that why they’re drawn to us? _

“What do you mean it’s not starting I thought we had gas!” George turns to Dream, slightly shaking.

“We have gas! It’s...the battery.” I mutter, looking at the useless car. We need another car to get it to start or we just need to go by foot. With this, Dream doesn’t hesitate to get out of the car. He goes towards the back of the car to the trunk. I get out, grabbing the keys to open the trunk. George and I go to the back of the car, the adrenaline in my system pumps as those things’ moans and grunts inch ever so closer.  _ Noise...sound, what else do they do? _

“We have backpacks, we can use George’s duffel bag for extra things.” Dream mutters, snatching the keys from my hands carefully. He unlocks the trunk, already dividing things up. Food, clothes, and other things. George takes the navy blue backpack and puts it on, he adjusts the straps as Dream organizes.  _ Those things and sound...silence is the key? _ “Sapnap, here.” Dream hands me the crimson backpack, being gentle. I grab it, putting it on to how I prefer it. I notice that it’s actually a bit different than the others. There’s a clip at the front, across my chest. I clip it. Dream opens the back passenger doors again, grabbing his flannel and a rolled up car blanket. As he’s about to slam the door I again I hold my hand up. He tilts his head in confusion.

“Watch those freaks as you slam the door shut, I think they’re attracted to sound.” I whisper-yell, unsure of how those things will handle it. Dream looks out to the sea of those things and shuts the door normally. More heads turn towards where we are.  _ So, they truly are. _

“Fuck-okay. We need to be quiet then, we won’t close the trunk when we leave.” Dream uses the same sound of voice that I do. He decidedly gets quieter, George nods to the information that he gave us. He goes back to the trunk, asking George to look out for us. I secretly look out too, so that this time we don’t nearly get fucked over again. But I also pay attention to what Dream is doing too. He fills up the duffel bag with the extra food, extra water, and some clothes as well. Nothing to kill those things besides the one knife that we have. “What the-” Dream practically crawls deep into the trunk but comes out with a baseball bat, a nice one too. It’s a metal outside bat. 

“What is that from?” I think out loud. “Oh shit-sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“I didn’t only participate in Football as a teen, but uh...I was into baseball.” Dream smiles slightly, a smirk forms. “I brought it with me when I moved not too long ago. I just got the car at the time too, must’ve forgotten to take it out. I suppose we’re lucky now to have it.” He swings the bat, testing it out. “Like riding a bike…” Dream awes but quickly gets serious about it. 

“So...a knife and a bat?” The seriousity of the situation is starting to settle.

“That’s all we have, yes.” Dream zips up the duffel bag carefully. He takes the dark green backpack and puts it on. He adjusts it of course, then swings the bat again. He rolls his shoulders, feeling the new weight on him. “We’ll have to get you something to protect yourself with then. We could stop at Orlando...or maybe a little further up.” He stares at the hoard yet again. He goes silent. I slap his shoulder, grabbing it slightly. 

“That sounds like a great idea Dream, less of those freaks.” I assure, smiling. I grab the zipped up duffel bag and put it across my chest. It hangs on my left side, the side I don’t particularly use the most. “For now, I’ll be the bag-boy.” I grin assuringly. Dream huffs, hugging me. The tall blonde brings me closer to his body, wrapping his lengthy arms around me. I pull him closer, squeezing tightly. As he lets go, getting away from me, I see the look in his eyes. 

“You’re fucking great, Sap. I love you so much.” He looks at the trunk again, seeing the access stuff left behind. His, George’s, and my access clothes, is that...Uno? I quickly grab Uno, tossing it into the duffel. 

“I love you too, Dreamy. But you can’t just leave Uno out of the midst. We need something fun to do.” I try to make light of the current situation, though I know it’s fucked. George walks back over to us, looking at the trunk. He grabs his clout goggles, scoffing. 

“I can’t believe that you didn’t think of this as a necessity, Dream! I already have color-blindness, I don’t need just plain blindness next.” George shoves Dream lightly, putting on the sunglasses.

“Sorry your highnesses, I guess I forgot the both of you have certain needs that you want met.” Dream snickers a bit before looking back at the car. Dream ruffles both of our heads, messing up our hair. I slap his hand away, undoing my headband. I redo it, parts of my bangs hanging out. 

“Yeah, yeah-” George begins but a sudden noise startles all of us. BANG! BANG! BANG! Dream grabs both George and I and forces us to duck down. The trunk door gets slammed down from something...Dream glances down the highway. A truck is seen, people from the back of it hold...guns.  _ Big ones. _

“Guys get under the car-get under car now!” Dream whispers, shoving the both of us underneath the car. He peers over at the freaks, seeing them going after the truck’s sounds. More bullets shoot out, scaring George even more. He covers his mouth, trembling. Dream climbs on top of us both, securing us together. His hands reach over the left side of me and the right side of George. 

The truck gets closer by the second, along with the feet of the hundreds of those freaks, and we’re laying here like sitting ducks! I begin to squirm only for Dream to whisper into my ear. 

“Sapnap, they were shooting at us. What do you think they’ll do if you go out there?” Harsh thoughts fill my head. 

“You’re right.” I murmur quietly, noticing stray feet walking towards the truck. George scoots closer to Dream and I. This causes me to scoot closer to them too. We’re compact together, forcing our breathing to be shallow and quiet. Adrenaline pumps into my veins again, the need to survive arising within me. More shots are heard, but now I can distinctly hear yelling. 

They yell about the world coming to an end, they yell about trying finding us, and they yell about the oncoming herd. They only make it worse with the access noise, the fastest freaks rush at them. Dream shakes his head, rolling his shoulder. That’s when I notice the baseball bat that he had was attached to the bag. I must not have noticed that he did something to do that. I notice more and more feet walk by. This time, the feet go around to my side too. I stifle my breath, hoping that I am covered up properly. The truck’s occupants shoot more bullets, riddling the area with them. The freaks too. The truck doesn’t sound like it moves for a second, then a curse is shouted. They get more distant, going the opposite way now. Wait...they could drive the freaks away from us. It could be a while though, maybe we can wait this out though. 

The shade helps a little bit, but to counter its effects, we are stacked on top of each other. The truck full of people screams more and more, sounds of pure chaos. They didn’t care if they shot us, hell, they shot at us! It makes me pissed off if I’m going to be honest. I scoot closer to Dream, nudging into his side. He wraps his left arm around my side, trying his best to comfort me silently. George peers over at us, a look appears on his face. He then does the same thing that I did, causing Dream to do the same thing. He wraps his right arm around his side. Why did he do that? 

More shuffling occurs, my breathing becoming stiffer with each passing second. We’ve been like this for a while now, for what? A half hour? An hour? TWO HOURS? George is latching onto Dream, Dream’s forehead is dripping sweat. His flannel would be useful to wipe it off, maybe when we get out from beneath here. Then there’s me, clinging onto the duffel rather than Dream. I am still under his arm though, it protects me.  _ Wait, when was the last time we actually saw feet? _

“Dream?” I whisper.

“Hm?” He hums.

“When was the last time we saw a foot from the freaks?” I ask very quietly, to the point where my voice gave out at the midst of the last word. 

“Five minutes, they were moving at a moderate pace. So we should at least wait another 10 minutes before continuing forward.” Dream analyzes. He sounds monotone, as if he’s done this plenty of times before. However, we know damn well that this is his first time. His calming nature invades my own emotions, making me take a deep breath rather than the small ones we’ve been taking. 

“Mhm.” I agree finally. 

___

After 10 pain staking minutes, Dream decides to be the one to get out from beneath the car. He unsheathes his bat once he’s out from here. You can hear the metal against the fabric of the backpack. Though, the sound isn’t too noticeable. It’s better than the groans of those freaks though, or the yelling of those anarchists. 

“It’s alright to come out now.” Dream sighs, sounding distressed. “And uh, don’t be surprised by the amount of bullets riddling the streets or--MY CAR.” He touches the car. George and I carefully get out from beneath the now destroyed car. George looks at some of the bodies of the dead, examining them. He walks up to them, looking to see if any of them don’t have bullet holes in their head. 

“Why are you searching the bodies?” I question without thinking.

“To find you something to work with.” George answers, scoffing. He looks around even more. 

“Well, that’s awfully nice of you.” I begin to look around too, checking my phone in my pocket.  _ 3:09pm. _ God, we’re making awful time, Dream seems to notice my disappointment and checks his own phone. He closes it, gulping.

“We should make this quick, if we make haste, we could probably make it to Clermont and camp out there for tonight. If we’re going to be walking from here on out, we’re going to have to be a bit more cautious of our supplies and energy and pace.” Dream opens the car door one last time, grabbing the frosted animal crackers. He slings his bag around his shoulder, opening the zipper and placing the bag in there. He zips it up and slings it back into position.

“Got it.” George mumbles, poking around corpses. That’s when I notice something a ways away, something shiny. I rush over to it, it must’ve fallen off of the truck from earlier. That truck saved our asses--though it did shoot at us. I grab the object, already knowing what the heavy tool is. It’s an axe, a regular fire axe. The type you’d find locked behind the glass on a stairwell, it was red. I pick it up, the heaviness of it off-putting. I swing it around, liking the feel of it. 

“Look guys!” I lift it up, Dream and George go in awe. 

“That’ll work, here let me make a holster.” Dream walks up with a rag and duct tape. Within seconds, I am able to put my axe away. “That should do.” He nods. 

“Thank you, Dreamy~” I coo, walking back to the car. This is where we finally make more progress, Dream telling us what will be changing in the route. Within his explanation, he stops as he sees a stray person in the middle of the road.  _ A freak _ . “You think I should test this bitch out?” I swing it in the air, feeling it out. Though, I’m not really sure why I do. Perhaps just because I saw Dream do it? I think he knows the best? 

“Knock yourself out-” Dream smiles, George shoves him aside to interrupt. 

“Just don’t die, dickhead.” He smirks, looking at me knowingly. I huff. 

“That would be a stupid way to go out, Gogy.” I speak carefully, walking towards the freak. “Besides, I don’t think you know me that well for me to go out in such a stupid way!” The freak notices me and turns towards me, getting out of a shuffle into a walk. I raise the axe to the highest point I can take it, “You hurt me.” I grin, swinging the weapon as the other draws near. I swing, chopping into the skull of the freak. It immediately goes slack, as blood spatters all over the place. It sprays my face slightly, though it only hits my cheek. I turn to the others with a thumbs up. “Works pretty well.” I shrug my shoulder, feeling a slight pain as it was used to swing with a lot of force.

“God, what a show-off.” Dream snickers, looking at the distance. Those things are still moving away from us, though that could change again very quickly. “Let’s get going.” He mutters, marching forward. Our destination to get to today being Clermont, it’s a realistic goal. I look behind us, the freaks are continuously pouring from where they were earlier. _We need to be very careful otherwise...some shit might end up happening._ I shake my head, I need to stay positive. If I’m not...the others will fall apart. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope that soon, I'll finally get into some better bits as they learn more about the 'freaks'.   
> .  
> .  
> I was thinking about who could possibly be in this story--and I think you'll like what I have planned. (somewhat planned, I really don't have an outline for this just yet.)   
> .  
> Come back soon!   
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> (also i really appreciate the commenting :>, what nice reactions. they really do make my day)


	10. Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SHRIMP MODE--ACTIVATED! Or more like I hate this damn duffel bag, it's very uncomfortable right now...hopefully Dream and George are doing better.

The pavement is smooth, because this is a high-way. Less likely for accidents to happen, but earlier...we saw one anyways. I kick a rock, feeling the weight of the Duffel Bag bringing me down. I don’t drag my feet though, I’m going to need these shoes. I can’t risk burning holes into them, besides where could I even go shoe shopping if that happens? We’d have to duct-tape them back together, maybe then I’d have Dream’s poor shoe taste. I snicker quietly, _that was actually funny_. I open my mouth to say something, but remember that those freaks are attracted to sound. 

Dream leads George and I, every now and then looking at his phone for directions. The pavement has seen a lot, and yet it still stands. At least, for now it still stands. I look around, seeing greenery around the pavement...the trees give off a nice shade in grass. Though, we can’t go near them. They’re off track, besides they won’t do much. It’s not the sun that is the issue. I feel the weight of the axe, my back whines. I readjust my bags, including the axe, hoping to release some pressure or tension. I fix my headband, noting the sweat drenching my scalp. _This heat honking sucks, is there anything that I can do about it though? I’m not even sure_. I could get a sip of water, but if I’m being honest...I don’t want to waste it. 

“Are you doing alright?” George whispers, his voice shaking a bit. He must be dying in this heat, he’s not used to it. “You seem to be in a bit of a struggle.” 

“I’m fine, it’s just the duffel-” I mutter, Dream slows a bit. 

“I can take it if you’d like.” George smiles, no longer walking. I pause, looking at Dream. He slows just a little bit more, his way of saying; _Make haste._ I remove the extra bag of weight, handing it to George. 

“Gogy, you’re surely going to regret this decision.” I smirk, already cracking my back from stretching it. “You will be going into ‘shrimpy mode’ while you carry it, so beware.” I wriggle my fingers, trying to get the spookiness vibe into the atmosphere, George scoffs. 

“What the hell is that supposed to be?” He stifles a giggle. 

“What do you mean?” I furrow my eyebrows, already knowing what he meant. He puts the duffel around his right side, walking again. Dream picks the pace back up, forcing George and I to do the same. 

“You know damn well what I mean. What was with that gesture? It was weird...Weirdnap.” George grins. I gasp, acting offended. 

“How dare you.” I giggle, causing him to lighten up too. I try to think of something else to say, but nothing comes to mind. The silence is thick, uncomfortable. It reminds me of the humidity--not to mention the clouds that are swirling around in the sky. We still have yet to see it rain. Wait...do we have to walk in that shit now? Damnnit. 

I kick the nearest rock--TING. The sound startles all three of us, as we immediately halt in our places. The rock managed to hit a nearby sign...I look around the edges of the trees, the edges of the road, even some stray cars that are further up. _Why am I such an idiot?_ I should remind myself not to kick any rocks. _Why the fuck am I so stupid--I didn’t even notice the damn sign! Maybe I should be-_

“Sapnap!” George shoves me, a freak just missing the both of us. _Where did it-_ Dream turns around, unsheathing his baseball bat. He swiftly hits the head of the freak, it gets knocked over onto the street. He beats the head in, the dark brain matter squelching. He looks around us, forcing us together. 

“Fuck-I didn’t see it--” I mutter, my head spinning from what just happened. _Where did it come from?_

“It’s alright, but more are starting to come.” Dream cracks his wrist, rolling his shoulders again. I look up from the corpse that he killed and shock must’ve taken place on my face. There’s so many of them coming...it’s not like earlier but we’re still only three people! “Put our backs together, all of us. It’s a better strategy than-” Dream sees five other freaks wander from each side of us. _Where are they coming from? They aren’t coming from the side of Orlando anymore. So where-_ I take out my axe, my hands shaking slightly. The soreness from the swing earlier rings into my shoulders. George gets his knife out, doing as Dream says. I follow suit, we’re getting surrounded! I feel my teeth chatter out of anxiety, I clench my weapon carefully. _Aim for the head._ I breathe out, moving forward to the nearest freak. I raise the axe hastily, bringing it down onto the thing’s head. I look at the other creatures, _they’re picking up their pace!_

I rip the axe out of the newly formed slot in the skull, using the other side to hit the next freak. It leaves behind a gapping hole. Blood splatters all around me, clouding my vision. I gag, forcing myself to swallow the bile. _I was able to take one down earlier-_ I clench my jaw...my arms sting. I raise the axe once more, crashing it to another corpse skull. I used the right side this time, easily slicing my way through the honker’s skull. More blood sputters from the newly cut wound, I notice the other freak shambling over here and I try to get ready for it. I raise my arm-wait...I raise my arm? I feel access weight pull at the axe. I peer down, panicking... _the freak got caught on the axe!_ I glance at Dream and George, who have now walked towards their respective sides defending each other and me. The duffel is in the center-I look back at the freak who cries to reach closer to me. Others follow after it...if I don’t get this axe out... _I’m going to die. I’m going to be the reason my friends and I die here. Not even leaving_ **_Florida_ ** _._

I wince, feeling heat behind my eyes. I clamp my foot down onto the corpse, holding the body still, I need to be faster! I struggle to get the axe out of this freak’s face! I lean closer to it, hoping that a new angle will be the key. More freaks start to come flooding over to me--all of this from a fucking rock! I finally yank as hard as I can, my arms swing the axe as it sinks into the next sad fuck’s face. I...I cut the entirety of the top of the head off. _How did I-_ I don’t have time to think about it! I begin to get back into my rhythm, though more and more seem to pour out around us. Were we near a neighborhood? I’m not sure how many more the three of us can do…

Sweat pours out of every pore of my body, blood begins to cake my clothing and axe. Dream and George begin to get clumsier with their attacks, I swing once more. I fall backwards, moving closer to Dream. 

“Dream-!” I shout, my arms screaming at me. “We need to-” I wheeze out, exhaustion kicking in. “We need to think of something else!” I scream. George steps back towards us too, he is visibly shaking. He has to actually get in closer than us, having only a survival knife and all.

“I..I know.” Dream mutters, thinking as he fights. He seems to do it so effortlessly, but I notice that he sometimes falters into his swing. A lightbulb seemingly pops over his head, though it’s dim. “Both of you, get ready.” Dream murmurs, the three of us back up against each other once more. “I’ll-” Dream begins, his tone hesitant but stern. I already have a sense of what he’s going to say, I cut him off before he can even get the chance to process how to say it. 

“You you fucking don’t.” I yell, I use my axe to hold back two freaks. “You don’t get to fucking do that.” I snarl, shoving the two off of me. I glide the axe through their skulls, just barely hitting hard enough to stop them. “You are staying alive, you hear that shit?” I grab his collar, gritting my teeth. He seems to shrink, though he still stands taller than me. He sighs, nodding. “We are all going to live, I’m making you live.” I let him go, seeing that just ten more come towards us. The heat plus the overexerted work out--we’re getting to deadly types of tired. I notice a pair of teeth threatening to sink themselves into George. I quickly yank the other backwards by the collar, only for Dream to take care of the dead. The three of us look at each other, seeing the ten other of these freaks. 

“Maybe...we don't need to think of something else." He pauses briefly, breathing out. "We got...this.” Dream huffs out, exhaling. He swings his bat once more, knocking over another freak. He has to beat each one into a pulp, as a bat isn’t sharp. He’s probably the most tired out of all of us. Though, George also didn’t sleep a wink in about a day and he’s not good with the high temperature heat here. _Nine more, just nine._ I bring the axe high into the air and chop a freak’s head in half. _Eight more_ , I mentally count. 

George gets back into it, sweating bullets, he drives the knife deep into the chin of the dead. He does this for two freaks, back to back. He leans on his knees for a brief second, wiping his forehead. Dream kicks the knees in of two of the dead bastards, he then holds one of them down with his foot and the other he crushes the head in. He does the same for the one he held down. _Four more_. I kick two of them down, for George to leap at the chance to kill one that was grabbing my shin. I grunt, forcing the axe down upon the new corpse.

“We got them!” George exclaims, smiling as he nearly falls to the ground. I chuckle, raising my arm up for a high-five. He gently pokes my hand, leaning on his knees. 

“Aw, come on--Dream?” I turn back over to Dream who...no. NO. As we were congratulating, we forgot about Dream. _He’s fucking pinned--he’s going to get bit!_ We make a break to save him, only for an arrow to come whizzing past us. Both George and I slide on our heels only for another arrow to go just narrowly by our heads! Each arrow hits a freak, killing two of them. Dream was narrowly saved. He nearly died, even without purposely risking his life. He almost died because he wasn’t vocal and we weren’t paying attention. I feel sweat drip down my face. _That begs the question though, who the hell-_

“Hey.” A woman speaks, I turn over to her. She’s dirty blonde, wearing tennis-shoes and other athletic wear, she carries her own duffel. There’s a man beside her, a caramel skin tone. It’s almost like mine, but just three tones darker. He lowers the bow, walking over to where Dream is. I notice George grab our duffel off the ground and retreat back to me. The man has curly hair, he also wears jeans and--a jacket! In this weather? He clearly has a death wish--but he grabs the arrows out of the skulls of the last two. Dream scrambles to get up, brushing himself off. The mystery man walks back to the woman, who stares at the three of us covered in chunks of brains, blood, and other things. She then looks at the taller of us, Dream, she looks at him expectantly. “You--I think that you owe Callahan here a thanks.” She gives a grim smile, walking closer to us. Dream nods. 

“Sorry, I was in a bit of shock. Thank you so much, Callahan.” Dream moves towards Callahan, only for a bow to be raised at his face. “Okay, I was just going to shake your hand.” Dream looks around the ground, backing away slowly. “My name is Dream, or that’s what I prefer to be called by anyways. What about you?” He motions to the mystery woman, she scoffs. 

“Not until your _friends_ introduce themselves first.” She looks through the pockets of those that are now on the ground, dead. Probably hoping for something useful. I stand up a bit straighter as she says this, exhaustion chewing onto my consciousness. _How the hell did we do that?_ The woman looks at me expectantly, and I jolt upwards yet again.

“Ah--sorry for not mentioning it sooner. My name is Sapnap.” I give a toothy grin, finding a scrap of a rag on the ground. I should clean the axe as we interact this these people, it would save us the hassle later when it is dried. 

“My name is George, don’t mind these weirdos and their odd names.” George chuckles, itching the back of his neck nervously. The woman looks around us, then stares back at Dream.

“My name’s Alyssa, don’t get too comfortable by the way. By the looks of it, you guys are heading somewhere. You also seemed to be in a bit of a jam.” She looks at us, the bags under her eyes are apparent. She also probably suffers from the lack of sleep at the moment, will sleep ever exist after this? I’m not so sure- 

“Again, thanks for that. Why did you decide to help us, if you don’t mind me asking?” Dream notices me cleaning up the axe and motions to the rag. I give him a look, he back off. 

“Oh well, I wasn’t planning on it.” Alyssa removes a lighter from a freak’s pocket. “Callahan on the other hand, he was very adamant about it. Though, it would appear that most of you would’ve made it out anyways.” She scoffs. 

“Thank you, seriously.” Dream turns to Callahan. The other just simply waves him off, an expression of neutrality settling onto his face. “Uh…” Dream turns to Alyssa.

“He’s mute, any of you know sign?” 

“Ah, I’m sorry. I don’t.” George cuts off their conversation. I shake my head in agreement, only for Dream to nod. 

“I do, I figured I’d learn it. I got bored a while back.” Dream began to make gestures, to which Callahan happily signed back. _If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Dream purposely learned how to communicate in sign. Heh, probably to talk with all of his fans. If only I could understand what they’re saying...they better not be talking shit._

I toss the rag over to George, who almost immediately wipes his blade down. He then offers it to Dream, Dream apologizes to Callahan and wipes his bat down. As he starts doing this, I check the time. _5:30pm_ , we need to get to that damned city soon. I tug on Dream’s shirt, this causes him to stare at me for a second or two before getting back to his own work. 

“Dream, we should get going soon if we’re going to make it by eight.” George notices what I was hinting at and vocalized it. He puts his knife into his back-pocket in the process. Dream tosses the rag onto the ground, as it’s now bloodied up to hell. We all turn to the other two who...already seem to be walking our way.

“Make it by eight? Where you headed?” Alyssa asks.

“That’s none of your-” I begin, only to get interrupted. 

“Clermont.” George pipes up, he glares at me. “If you’d like, you can join us there. Even if it’s just for the night. I’m sure that we could all use some rest.” He offers this to the other strangers, to which they...surprisingly accept. Dream begins to lead the way again, having me take the very back. I understand why, but it’s still unfair. Why the hell do we need to get other people involved in our shit? I guess...it’s everyone’s technically though. But, now we have two new people in our group--even if it’s just for the night. 

__

We walk, the five of us, to Clermont. We’re roughly 30 minutes out at this point and I’m very fucking exhausted. The pavement was red before, it’s still red now. The blood that drips from our clothing, to the arrows that Callahan has stocked away on the side of his hip. To the shoes that leave footprints of blood in our direction. Of course, it’ll eventually dry and scrape away. But it’s still rather dangerous. My arms screech at me to stop using them for pointless things, like walking with a passion, but I have to push onwards. I notice a rock, I want to kick it but...there’s a sign nearby. I pass, having learnt my lesson about literally kicking a rock. 

George is directly beside Dream, they seem to be conversing. All of them do, actually. All of them, except for me at least. They all bond--get closer while I seem to drift away from all of them. My goal...it seems so unreachable. Do I really think that my family is still alive? The chances are so fucking low, that it pains me that we’re still risking everything just trying to get to Texas. We waste sleep over it, we waste time, we waste precious energy. But all of it, it’s for _my_ comfort. Not even theirs. Why? Why do they insist on doing this for me? Dream and George almost died--shit, _I almost died!_ I internally shout inside of my void of a brain. Not to mention that these new people are somewhat sketchy to me, there is so much...shit. 

I sigh, extinguishing any left over pain. I should try to talk to the people we’ll be walking with, even if it’s for a little bit. I open my mouth to say something...only to close it again. I notice Alyssa’s duffel again, looking more at the way it looks. It’s black, with faded police department logos on it. It was decently made, not being too cheap or the good kind by the looks of it. It is also not filled to the brim, yet it looks hefty. In fact...the bag is slightly malformed due to whatever is inside. I shake my head, _stop being weird about it Nick._ Rather than make conversation myself, I settle for just listening in. Though, I still keep a close eye around us. 

“So Dream, how long have you known these two?” Alyssa asks, looking at both George and I. Dream’s straight face morphs into a slight smile for a brief moment, but it stays like that for a very short period of time. 

“A long time, we aren’t strangers. How about the both of you?” He asks the same question, clearly Alyssa wasn’t ready for it as she has to think for a moment. 

“Well, it’s been about what? A year? Two years?” She peers over at Callahan, who nods. “Time becomes mush with those you have an actual bond with, you know?” She squints at Dream. 

“Yeah, I do.” He nods, marching forward.

“What’s in your bags? Or even that big one?” She tilts her head?

“Clothes, food, water, personal items, the works.” 

“So, when you guys were fighting back there--no guns?” 

“Yep.” He simply adds, his tone fading of any friendliness of the game of 21 questions she was playing. “Why does that seem important to you?” 

“No reason, just curious was all.” Alyssa hums, though I notice a look on Dream’s face. Shivers go down my spine, _I’ve never seen his face like that._ I am tempted to ask him what’s wrong, ask him anything...he’s clearly suspicious of them. That’s when Callahan points at a sign, _Clermont._ We made it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> So two new members join the party :), Alyssa and Callahan! That's how you know I have a list of all that I would like to include within this fic--which is those that I can work the plot/setting of this story.  
> .  
> .  
> All of the commentors are wonderful and I appreciate all of your reactions/kind words T-T, thank you so much! You don't understand how happy they really make me :)  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Please, come back soon! Thanks for reading!


	11. A Grave for Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah finally, I can put my feet to rest--not to mention my back sort of hurts due to Sap being too much of a baby! Finally, we get to relax...I think...

. . .

“Ah, we’re here.” Dream mentions, checking his phone. “7:43, not that worse for wear.” He mutters. “So are both of our groups sharing a house this evening to rest? We can separate in the morning, no hassle. We can even put tape down the middle of the room--or if it’s fancy we’ll go on the first floor. You guys could take the second.” Dream monologues, clearly trying to drive them away. To which, it doesn’t work. 

“Sounds good to me, Callahan?” Alyssa looks over to her friend, he signs something rather quickly. She nods. “It’s a deal then.” 

“Alright, the next neighborhood we find, we’ll talk more about this arrangement then.” Dream then follows the road that leads deeper into the city rather than the one that will eventually lead us to Texas. I hope that this is the right decision,  _ though...Schlatt warned of strangers before he...passed _ . I shake my head, beridding of the thought. I don’t need to think of the ghosts we leave behind--I can’t think about them. I’m sure that Dream feels more pain towards it though, in fact I’m willing to bet that it’s eating him from the inside out. 

I drop my pace a bit to bring myself closer to Sapnap, he hasn’t talked in a while. It’s kind of hard to not notice his voice amongst others like this. Maybe he has valuable input towards this whole ‘agreement’ between two groups. 

“Hey Sap.” I mutter carefully and quietly. 

“Gogy.” He grins, he had to shake his head though before. He must be thinking a bit more...not good for a person that has smoke pouring out of their ears every time they think. 

“What’s your opinion on this whole ordeal?” 

“Whatever could you mean? The entire situation or-” 

“Good God Sapnap-” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You know damn well what I’m referring to.” I whisper, nudging my head in the direction of the strangers. “So?”

“Oh, well maybe you should lead with that genius.” 

“Come on, do I have to constantly dumb things down for you Sap?” 

“It doesn’t hurt to be specific...”

“Mhm.” 

“I don’t like it.” He immediately cuts to the chase, shaking off the previous encounter. “ We haven’t even known them for a day--or even five hours if we’re talking time!” Sapnap peers over at Dream who is caught in the middle of the other two. I furrow my eyebrows, hoping that they don’t try anything.  _ They did save him though...why would they do that if to kill him later? _ “I know that we probably should keep our guard up with them, even if we’re more than tired.” 

“You’re right about that, I’ll bring this up with Dream later. Hopefully-” 

“He’ll agree? Yeah, though I already think that we have our answer. Did you not see the look plastered onto his face earlier? Though it did last for only a second or two...it said everything.” Sapnap finished my sentence. 

“I didn’t, but I’ll still bring it up with him.” 

“That’s right because you haven’t talked with him in hours, right?” Sapnap teases to which I shove him. 

“You are so annoying.” I exclaim, rolling my eyes.

“But you love me.” He cheekily smiles. 

“Debatable.” I smirk as he gasps, clenching his chest in fake hurt. I pick up the pace again, catching up with Dream. 

Dream glances over at me for a second before turning another block, to which we all follow. His shirt used to be white, but now there’s plenty of red splotches all over it. His flannel also has a few drops here and there, we weren’t really able to check each other for wounds. We’ll have to do that once we settle down for the night. I notice my own clothes stained for the rest of their time of being worn. It’s rather uncomfortable after all of this time in the humidity, the mixture of sweat and blood not being a favorite. Good thing we have hygiene things in the duffel bag as well, otherwise I might as well die right on the spot. Dream stops walking, holding his arm out to stop me as well. I crash into him, looking up at him. 

“We should be careful, hear that?” Everyone listens out, me especially. Groans and the sound of feet rumble quietly in the distance. “I hear shuffling somewhere. Anyhow, I think we could crash at that corner house over there?” Dream points, muttering with purpose. I look at his arm, how it still remains where my torso is. I gently shove it down, Dream apologizes silently. I feel my face becoming warmer, why him?

It could’ve been someone else online, it could’ve been a neighbor back in London, or maybe even Sapnap! Why Dream? Why did it have to be one of the only people I couldn’t have? He’s already going through such a terrible time, he’s our leader of sorts, and he’s...well...straight?  _ If only we ever talked about it in our late night calls...unless I just wasn’t paying attention as he said it. _ I know that he's dated girls before, I know about nearly everything! Just...not that information. It pains me to try to force this out of my brain--my heart even, but I have to. It’s for both me and him! Him and I...though it’s a nice thought. His hand in mine, his arm wrapped around me, his protection against those rotten bastards. Those are just the recent stuff, I have so many more reasons to love him!  _ Like. To like him. _

Carefully, all five of us wander to the nearest house. No sights of those things, however you can certainly hear some things from anywhere if you listen hard enough. We all enter the first house we laid our eyes upon, immediately noticing the broken interior. Much like Dream’s childhood house, this place has clutter sprawled about. Not to mention the blood that is splattered around occasionally. Dream draws his bat out carefully, his arms no doubt sore. He points to Callahan and Sapnap to come with him upstairs. As they go up there, Alyssa and I check out this current floor. 

I lock the front and back door, double checking the locks by twisting the doorknob roughly. I turn to see the kitchen and livingroom corpse-less. I hear stuff getting knocked over upstairs, hoping to whatever the fuck--that it isn’t a bad thing. That everyone is okay up there. Meanwhile, I tense up walking to the laundry room. The stench of sour clothes wafts out of the washing machine, it’s been there for a couple of days...where did the people go? I shake my head, noticing that the light on the washing machine is still lit. Power still exists in this house--we can charge our devices! I notice Alyssa walking out of the closet, mop in hand. 

“What are you doing?” I interrogate her, looking at the mop specifically. 

“Cleaning up the floor, we’re going to be sleeping on it.” She groans, proceeding to the living room. I look at the closet, noticing duvets and towels of plenty.  _ That’ll be useful for later _ , I mentally note. I walk back out to the common area, deciding to look through the kitchen cabinets and drawers. Maybe the fridge, seeing as power still works. Cans, some overly ripe fruit, ramen...we actually will eat good tonight. Of course, it’s been a hot second since I had an actual meal rather than crackers. Since the pizza, I think? Even then, I didn’t have much. A growl erupts from my gut, sounding off it desires nourishment. I roll my eyes, we have to clean up the place a little bit first. 

Alyssa mops the floors we’ll be standing on more frequently, though in the end she just mops up all of the blood that is easily able to get removed. I look at the living room’s carpet, how it has a decent size of blood staining it. I hesitantly walk back to the closet grabbing; a towel, scrub brush, and cleaner. It’ll be better than the smell of the iron liquid, that’s for sure. I set the duffel bag on top of the couch, already knowing the couch is clean, then get to work on this pool of blood. 

Within minutes the people upstairs carry two bodies. Callahan walks ahead, opening the back door carefully. I peer over to see that the bodies have... _ bullet holes in between their eyes.  _ A shiver creeps up and down my back, I swiftly get back to the blood. But curiosity gets the better of me yet again. I peer back up, just in time to see that Dream has a new item tucked into his waistband. I shudder again, thinking about what the hell happened to those bodies. I know that none of us have a gun, but now we do. I can tell by the grip of the gun sticking out of Dream’s pants. It’s small, though I can’t quite remember the name of what it is. I shake my head,  _ maybe it’s best if we just leave it here? _ I then look at what I was working at, noticing that I’ve done all that I can. 

I get off my knees, returning to the closet. I put everything back except the towel--this one is getting tossed outside. I go to the back door again, tossing the towel haphazardly. I get a peek of what the other three are doing, they’re doing a mock burial of sorts. Though, the bodies aren’t getting buried. They’re just getting their arms crossed and flowers are placed into their hands. Dream speaks to the two, then starts walking my direction. We exchange glances as he comes over here, I give him a look. He nods. 

“What do you want to talk about, George?” He asks, bringing our conversation into the laundry room. I sigh. 

“I want to talk about the people that we aren’t so familiar with. What are your thoughts on them?” I ponder, closing the door to this room. 

“Well, I’m not here to spread gossip George.” He teases.

“I’m being serious-” 

“I know.” He sighs. “I don’t trust them.” He looks around the environment, scrunching up his nose at the sour smell. “What’s that smell?”

“Sour clothes.” I respond immediately. “Have you noticed anything strange with them?”

“Not particularly.” He notes. “Though...that duffel bag of theirs is very strangely shaped. I was talking to Callahan and they mentioned that they don’t have any guns, but that bag of theirs suggests otherwise.” 

“What are you hinting at?”

“Why would they lie about that? And if those guns are bulky enough to the point were it makes a weird bag shape--they’ve got to be big.” 

“Just like that one truck? But didn’t we hear other voices besides, you know, a woman and a mute?”

“They could have a group.” Dream notes, hearing knocking on the door. “Wait, is that lighting up?” He walks over the the source of the stench. Alyssa walks through the door without us responding to her knocking. 

“Yeah it is, I’m pretty sure that this house still has power. Meaning-” I begin to answer Dream.

“Sorry to burst your guys’ chat, but are you guys going to help us set up for the night?” Alyssa looks annoyed and walks out. I look at Dream, who walks towards the door before he does though...he leans towards my ear. “ _ Keep your ears and eyes open. _ ” He whispers before walking out to help. A blush digs it’s deadly arms onto my face,  _ f-fuck _ . 

As I walk out of the laundry room, promptly shutting the door, the living room and kitchen are already looking different. Sapnap and Callahan are in the kitchen, making a hot meal for all of us. Alyssa and Dream are laying out the duvets, pillows, etc. in the living room. I look around for some candles, thinking that we might want actual light sources once it’s dark out. I go back to the trusty closet, already seeing a large tub of candles within it.  _ This person must’ve had a candle obsession, but I thank them for it.  _ I place the candles around, now time for a lighter. I look around the closet again, nothing. Going to the kitchen, I look in drawers...nothing. I look in cupboards and find...matches! How come I didn’t see these earlier? 

“Dude watch it!” Sapnap scolds as I bump into him. 

“Sorry!” I scramble to get back to the candles, I just need to light one candle to light the others. Matches are actually a useful thing to have in the situation that we’re in.

I strike the match against the box, it ignites within the third strike. I carefully light a candle, then start lighting all of them. Carefully, I set them down. While candles are dangerous to just have spewed about, it’s safer to have than lighting up the whole house via light bulbs. This way it’s actually a little bit more discreet. We’re not sure how those things tick just yet, they could be attracted to light. They could be attracted to anything--sound being one of those things for sure. 

“Supper is done!” Sapnap exclaims, rushing over to the living room. He sets two bowls down, ramen. Callahan behind him carries two bowls as well, a final bowl being brought by Sapnap again. The five of us sit around a glass coffee table, forks are handed out by Callahan. Dream, Sapnap, and I are on one side of the table while the other two are on the other. We nearly eat in a complete, tension filled, silence. But Sapnap gets to talking which leads to everyone chattering. It was endearing to say the least, though...something is off about Dream. He excuses himself early, setting his empty bowl on the kitchen counter. Soon after I too finish,  _ maybe I should look for him? _ I shake my head, he might want to be alone. 

I grab the duffel bag, finding a new shirt. I look at my blue one with a red box on the center of the chest, the numbers 404 on it. I rush upstairs to find a bathroom to change in, even if it is just a shirt. I open the door, no one in it and go into the bathroom. 

First I set my backpack aside, then carefully I peel off the disgusting grey shirt I wore. It was soaked in, now dried, blood and sweat. I take the time to wet a rag with water to wipe off any access blood or grim on my face, chest, hands, anything really. Once I was satisfied with that, I place the new shirt over my head. I look into the mirror, yep...still me. I put the water and rag away, putting my backpack on. I walk out of the bathroom. Suddenly, a pair of hands wrap around my chest in a hug.  _ Who- _ I smell it...him. It’s Dream,  _ why do you know what he smells like? Creep.  _

“Yes?” I act annoyed, though I appreciate the touch. Part of me wants to turn around and actually hug him...but that would be weird right?

“You looked like you could use a hug.” He mumbles into the crease of my neck, he whispers. If I’m not careful--I push him away. 

“I do not.” I huff out, crossing my arms. 

“Oh come on now.” 

“What was your actual reason?”

“I actually want to show you something, the living room is set and...we got time before night completely comes.” He grabs my hand, leading me to the opposite end of the hallway up here. He leads me to a bedroom, the window facing towards the backyard. He shuts the door behind us, leading me to sit by the window, soft pattering sounds are heard on the roof. 

“It’s-” I begin. How come I didn’t hear this before...

“It’s raining.” He smiles, the dusk finding its way onto the sky. The rain of course makes things grayer. I’m sure that it looks pretty to the normal eye...though it looks rather ridiculous to me. Still though, why did he have to show me this? I turn to him--noticing that he’s entranced by what is held outside. I feel my heart pound in my ear, it pounds too loudly for my liking. Can he hear it? He turns to me, catching my glance. I look down, only for him to bring me closer. Another hug. “You said it was calming, so I thought that you’d at least want to know that it was happening.” He looks back at the window.

“Are you okay, Dream?” I ask seriously. He looks a little saddened, he then hugs me tighter. The side hug getting more serious as it threatens to become a real hug. 

“Those bodies we carried earlier...they also commited suicide. But they left a note for their families.” Dream says this quietly, I listen as if he’s everything. “They were a married couple, they found out about what was happening. One of them got bit and they knew from the news that would mean the end. One of them couldn’t live without the other so...they died together.” Dream turns his head towards me. “It’s stupid to get so worked up about it--I didn’t even know them. But...fuck.” He mutters. 

“It’s not stupid, you’re human.” 

“Being human sucks then, it’s painful.” He loosens his grip on me, but I completely get in front of his face. “I’ve already lost everything and--if one of you were to get bit...I don’t know what the fuck I’d do.” 

“Is that why you--why Sapnap snapped at you earlier? In the heat of the fight, you had a thought. From what Sapnap said…” I felt a pang of pain hit me. “Were you going to  _ sacrifice yourself _ ?” I look at him intensely, noticing the guilt on his face. 

“I’m just saying that…” 

“Answer me, Dream.” 

“I don’t know what I was going to do-” 

“ _ Clay _ .” I furrow my eyebrows, gripping his shoulders tightly.

“Yes, I was.” He looks at me, his facial expression not matching his tone. It was harsh, intense...at least his tone was. His face looks broken, on the verge of tears. How is he such a great actor in front of others, but behind closed doors almost fall apart. 

“What the hell happened to you? Four days ago, you would be very cocky and-”

“You know what happened.” He firmly states, already crumbling under my own hands. 

“Dream...we’ll get through this okay?” I assure him. “All three of us will, it’s okay to feel things you know.” I hug him properly, he digs his hands into my shirt. It’s a good thing I changed then. The only thing covering my shirt now is tears...though I can live with that. He should take the time he needs anyways...he desperately needs something to latch onto. I hold him tighter again, not wanting my own water works to get the better of me. “I’m here for you, Dream.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> Howdy! Thank you so much for reading and again, the commenters are back at it again with lighting up my day. I am sorry for the semi-late post, I may have forgotten about it until 11:55--good thing I try to write these in advance huh?  
> .  
> .  
> What is this? A longer chapter as well!? Woah...this is so cool! (Oh and if you see any mistakes, no you don't)  
> .  
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> .  
> I appreciate all of you a lot! Until next Sunday--come back soon!!


	12. Gun in a Fist-Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and I were together for a little bit. Silence should've already been a sign...

We continue to hug, rain sounds off thunder in the distance. The world outside becomes dark. I hope that Sapnap doesn’t mind being around Alyssa and Callahan, as this is more important at the moment. Eventually though, Dream finally pulls away. He wipes his tears, or tries to. I know that he’s not ready to talk about his deceased...but I feel that he is warming up to the idea. I look at him, trying to dry his tears and notice that he hasn’t changed yet. He is still in his bloodied up clothes just yet, nor has he even cleaned up. I sigh looking at him with a soft smile.

“Dream...” I murmur, looking at the other. He stares at me, his eyes still red and puffy. “Do you want me to get you a change of fresh clothes?” I stand up, expecting a yes. But, Dream doesn’t say anything. His face drifts down to his shirt, looking at the brain matter and blood that is now dried. The shirt is pretty much unsavable, but everything else is okay enough to salvage. “Dream?”

“Sorry, uh...yeah. I think I’ll clean up this room a bit so that the three of us can stay here, make sure to bring everything that we own with you.” Dream immediately regresses back to being in charge.  _ How can he just shift like that--when has he been able to do this? I should be getting used to this. _

“Oh, is that what the terms were?” I question, avoiding the way that he swiftly changed his attitude.

“More or less. Callahan already nabbed a few things up here earlier, so he offered the second floor to us. That’s why I disappeared earlier, to clean up here a bit. You seemed like you wanted to ask about it before...yeah.”  _ So this is why he disappeared after dinner, to clean up here for Sap and I. _

“You really are a good person, huh?” I smile, stretching where I stand.

“I try.” He wheezes, moving the bed to the corner of the room. That’s probably my cue to leave. I walk towards the door. But Dream says one more thing as I twist the knob. “Thank you George, tonight...let’s play Uno. Alright?” He snickers, the redness of his eyes fading to his flushed cheeks. I nod, opening and closing the door. I’ll make this quick. 

As I walk down the stairs, I notice the candles I lit earlier are now the sources of light around the house. A chill wafts from where the back door is, but I see that it’s closed. It’s eerily silent...eerily empty. I am tempted to call for Sapnap, fill him in into what just happened. But also, that was something just between Dream and I. The area is black, but the candles surrounding make it a flickering glow. I go over to the living room, seeing that our duffel bag is wide open-- _ what the hell? _ I look around, feeling the sense that someone is watching me. 

I creep towards the bag, a dread washing over me. Why does this seem like something bad is going to happen? I peer into it...there’s less items in it.  _ Why- _

“Hold it right there, Pipsqueak.” Alyssa says slowly, a knife being pressed against my neck. The neck on my hair stands up. “Unless you or your friend-” Callahan comes into my prieprial, revealing that Sapnap’s mouth is covered by his own headband. He looks at me, teary eyed and squirms. Callahan shoves Sapnap into a wooden chair in the center of the living room. The carpet makes it harder for the chair to move...smart. Another wooden chair is brought over, probably for me.  _ Dream is still upstairs, he’s our only hope. I need to think of a smart and safe way to get him down here. _ “--want to die, I’d keep your mouth shut.” Alyssa grabs the back of my collar, dragging me backwards. Callahan holds Sapnap in place on the chair, the rain pounds harder against the roof. Roughly, I get shoved into the other wooden chair. “I know that you won’t run or scream, you seem like you actually have brains...unlike your pal over here. He started to run to the stairs, luckily Callahan tackled him down in time.” Looking back over a Sapnap...I see a bloody nose. He looks more beat up than earlier, more tired. I feel my adrenaline kick into gear, preparing me for what’s to come.

“What do you want?” I whisper, the desperation seeping into my voice. 

“Your stuff.” She grins, the candle lighting morphing her face horribly. “We’ve been around the past couple of days, we’ve seen some terrible shit. I mean, rioting was very apparent in large cities. It lead to fires, it lead to chaos, and it lead to countless lives being lost.” She points the knife at my neck. Callahan shifts his footing, _ he’s closer to me. If I could just kick his knee in...Sap could-- _ Sapnap gives me an intense glare. As if he is telling me not to do that, I don’t see any alternative. I look at him, my eyes softening.  _ It’s our only chance, the longer we’re like this, the less chance we have to actually survive this.  _ He looks at me once more, pleading. I look back at Alyssa, she’s closer than before. She’s still ranting on about the countless life or death situations she’s been in within the past two days. The knife doesn’t seem as threatening as before...this is the chance. She seems off her game, I decide to take a leap of faith.  _ I trust you Sapnap, I’ll scream for the both of us. You’ll fight like hell to replace my efforts in this battle. _

I quickly shove her backwards, using all of the strength I have left of the grueling day. I then launch my leg backwards, kicking Callahan behind the knee. I scream as loud as I possibly can whilst doing these things...if Dream doesn’t hear this--no! I can’t think of that! Sapnap gets out of his seat, taking the headband out of his mouth and throws it so he can get right to kicking some ass. Alyssa on the other hand rushes towards me, I try to get out of the way of the knife...only for a thin cut to get left on my forearm. I wince, knowing that was only the tip of the blade. Feet pound the stairs, Dream holds his bat up ready for anything. I grin, knowing that we can easily over power them now. I forget what I was doing...a knife is pressed deeply in my gut. I lean over into the knife, holding her away from me to make the wound even deeper. 

“FUCK.” I scream, the adrenaline keeps me from feeling all of it but it’s already terrible. Tears prick my eyes as I struggle to keep her off of me. A thud sounds off, Dream has immediately knocked her to the ground. I feel my eyes focus on the object protruding out of my lower gut...I want to vomit.  _ Am I going to die? _ I hold the area tightly, making sure the knife doesn’t do anymore damage.  _ I knew the risk, I knew the risk--and it’s working.  _ I hunch over, wanting to help. Sapnap, in the corners of my eyes, fights Callahan. The two throw punches, until Sapnap grabs Callahan by the shoulder and rams him into the front door. Shattering the glass! But from that a pounding on the door is heard.  _ Freaks _ . Callahan leans his head towards Sap, pleading for his life. I look over at Dream who has Alyssa pinned, there’s a struggle primarily coming from Dream. I try to walk over there, only for the knife to bark back at me. I falter to the ground, wanting to get rid of the forbidden object. Dream begins to ease up, but Alyssa continues to press harder into both of their guts. They seem to be fighting over-BANG! A gunshot roars through the house, the world even. My eyes widen, noticing that Dream isn’t hunching over or faltering. But...Alyssa’s eyes look around, her grip clearly weakening. Her strength starts to fade as blood starts to come choking out of her mouth. Dream stands up, he looks at her...bewildered. 

Sap on the other hand finally forces Callahan onto his knees, making him stay down or else. But Dream pays no mind to him or me...just the person dying in front of him. The person he shot...the person that pulled the gun on him.  _ It was out of self-defence _ \--I carefully walk over to her...she leans up against the couch behind her...only to fall back down. She tries to cover the wound, hissing in pain. Callahan is tempted to rush over here, he signs to her...though she just looks at Dream. I can...I can help her. I try to get closer to put pressure on her but...she gets slack. Callahan shuffles where he’s seated, squirming to try and get over here...Sap doesn’t let him.

I check her pulse, hoping that she just passed out from shock and not blood loss. No...I peer over a Dream.  _ He’s never going to recover from this...Sap is going to be terrified of him...what about me? He...he did this to protect me.  _ She’s dead. Dream killed her. I shake my head, Dream’s fists begin to quake. He begins to breath rapidly, looking at the corpse before us. He looks at me, as if I just told a poor joke. I give him kind eyes...though I groan. My adrenaline wears thin, the blade poking into my body. I want to give a blood curdling scream. I try to move my feet, go to Dream...to Sap...but my feet just can’t. I collapse, the blood slightly oozing beneath my shirt. 

Dream gets out of his head and rushes by my side, he lifts me up gently. I smile, no blood pouring out of my mouth. That’s a good sign...that means she missed the important organs and such. Though...it’s still going to be a shitty recovery…

“What the fuck just-” Sap begins, only for the door to be pounded on more. This time, more freaks surround the front window. “You, where the fuck did you take our shit!” Sap yells at Callahan. Callahan furrows his eyebrows and signs something. Dream peers over, catching the last bit. 

“He said check the dryer.” Dream mutters, going back to looking over my wound. Sap nods, forgetting about Callahan. “We’re going to have to carry you--” Callahan takes the chance to rush over to Alyssa. To which, Dream reaches over the two and grabs our duffel bag. Callahan glares at him, hatred flooding through his eyes. His eyes are glassy though, meaning he’s about to cry...I don’t blame him. He just lost his only friend in this fresh hell. 

“Carry me? You’ll both die trying.” I scoff, though I then spit out a curse under my breath. It hurts...it really fucking hurts. “We either have to defend this place or-”

“We’re not doing that second option, we’ve talked about this George.” Dream looks shaken, if anything looks at him wrong...he could snap. “Sapnap! I need my bag, it’s upstairs in the spare bedroom!” Dream shouts, though that makes the pounding louder. Callahan wraps his arms around the corpse, hugging her as he silently sobs. I look away...it’s none of my business. 

“Dream…” 

“Hang on George, I’ll get you some meds and then you won’t feel any of this.” 

“Save them, I can handle this.” I feel a sweat forming on my head, was that knife clean?  _ Am I going to be infected if it wasn’t? God...I don’t want to be one of those things...PLEASE don’t let me be one of those things!  _ Dream might’ve noticed my panic because he runs his hand through my hair, the other is tightly bound to my wound. 

“She used her own survival knife, you can tell from the grip. I noticed it was clean before she stabbed you, no freak blood.” He gives a sad smile. “You won’t die from the infection but another type of infection if we’re not careful. You need to take medicine for it, George. I seriously don’t mind carrying you, I can handle it.” 

“Not when we’re all this exhausted!” I groan out, feeling the pressure in my stomach build and get worse. “Can we just get this fucking thing out?” I beg. 

“We can’t, you’ll start bleeding profusely. We’ll need to stitch you up as well.” I wince from the shear idea. 

“Dream, if I’m not built for travel...and you don’t want to leave me here. We should move to the second floor. We can barricade the stairs, it would be easier to protect if-- _ once _ those freaks break in.” I explain, trying to get up. I immediately get picked up by Dream, I would normally get flushed but the pain is starting to get very rough for me. “Sh-shit!” I grit my teeth. 

“Sorry.” He tries to lift up the duffel with his hand--

“URGH!” I yelp, more pain seeping through my veins. 

“I’m so sorry!” He exclaims, completely forgetting the duffel...at least until Callahan stands up. He grabs it, throwing it over his shoulder. He signs something, before going upstairs. 

“W-what did he sa-say?” I breathe out.

“ _ I don’t want another person to die today _ .” Dream recalls, saddened by the fact he…

“Don’t think about it.” Sapnap rushes back in, with the other group’s duffel. “Upstairs, I overheard, smart. Come on, I’ll set this shit in the room and I’ll start barricading the area. Callahan will help me, though the bastard muzzled me.” His eyebrow twitches, he snatches his headband off the floor. “Can’t forget about this.” Then he rushes up the stairs. Dream starts to follow quickly, probably thinking about how he’ll end up being the person to fix me up. 

As we reach the room we were in earlier, I see that it already looks completely different than earlier. The bed in the corner, sheets, blankets, duvets, all sprawled around the center of the room. A ‘sleep pile’ more like, his and my backpack are in another corner. Sapnap and Callahan place the other duffels (plus Sapnap’s own backpack) in the same corner, Sapnap tells Callahan his plan and they go out of the room yet again. This time, they’ll be barricading the stairs off, making sure that none of those freaks can get in. I yelp once more as I’m set on top of the bare mattress, my head faces the door so that Dream can easily access my wound. 

He lifts up my shirt partially, inspecting the area. If this wasn’t a ‘life or death’ situation, I would be reeling from the attention. However, this is not the case at all. In fact, it’s rather terrifying. He rummages through his own backpack, he pulls out; a full water bottle, gauze, rags, meds, a needle, rubbing alcohol, tape, and a thread like item. He hands me the medicine and water. 

“It won’t dissolve completely when I’m stitching you up, but it’ll make it easier to sleep at night.” Dream ensures to stay honest. “That being said, the less noise you make, the better.” He backs up a bit, going to his belt. I look away, swallowing the pill and some water with it. 

“Jesus Dream!” I exclaim quietly, I cover the water bottle’s cap and lay flat again. The knife seems to dig deeper into my being, I bit my lip...harshly. Dream shakes his head, folding his belt. 

“Don’t bite your lip, it’ll bleed. Here.” He brings the belt to my mouth. “Bite on this, I’ll try to do this as quick as I can...but I won’t mess anything up..” He promises. He looks more nervous than I’m sure than I do, I open my mouth and he places it beneath my teeth. I bite the belt, just enough to make it stay still in my mouth. Weirdly it smells like him-

“MMMFTTT!” I bite into the belt as the knife is yanked out of my gut. I try to keep my eyes off of the liquid pouring out of me, I try to not focus on Dream’s panicked expression, I try not to focus on the pain! I release more screams, though they get slightly muffled by the belt. I peer down, seeing a rag with immense pressure on my abdomen. He’s trying to stop the bleeding, more sweat forms on my face-- “AUGHMM!” I bite down hard, a stinging forming around the cut! I squirm, only for Dream to try to hold me down to no avail. 

“SAPNAP, I NEED YOU!” Dream’s voice breaks as he yells. Sapnap immediately rushes in, Callahan in tow. “Please hold him down!” Dream shouts, trying his best. 

“Got it!” Sapnap carefully gets on the bed and gets on the other side of me. He tensely holds my arms and body down. “Callahan, prepare for those fuckers to break in. They’re about ready to burst in from all exits.” Callahan nods, rushing back out the door. “Holy shit-” He looks down at my wound. 

“I know, I know.” Dream grumbles, a light sweat forming on his forehead. I clench my jaw, gripping the belt as more stinging arises.

“MMM!” I scream out, flailing my limbs--though Sapnap holds them down firmly. 

“Stop squirming.” Sapnap presses harder, sure to leave bruises if he gets any rougher. I glare at him, though a certain blurriness hits the corners of my eyes. He sighs, peering over at what Dream is doing. “You have to do that?” He looks shocked, but Dream nods. I grit my teeth harder, hoping that the pain goes away soon. 

“George, you’re doing great..” Dream mumbles, starting to concentrate solely on the worst part about to happen. If the stinging is over, meaning the alcohol is before- AUGH! I jolt, causing Sapnap to press his hands firmly to my arms.  _ He’s stitching me up now--each individual prick is that of the needle.  _ I let the wetness of my eyes run down my face, hot wetness to the cold crisp air. “Shit, we’re going to have to give you five more George--you can do this.” Dream tries to work quickly, but I feel like fainting. I feel like heeling over-

“Dream..” Sapnap peers at my face, I want to turn to face him but I don’t feel capable. I gently close my eyes, tired. “Dream!” Sapnap says louder. 

“What-” 

“-osing him!” 

“-ge!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> You heard it here folks! We know who gets the first injury, I guess it just depends on if they survive or not :)  
> .  
> .  
> I can't ignore this bit anymore, but over 600 hits?! That's crazy! Imagine that number in a room with you...jeBUS. That's baffling to me.  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Thank you SO MUCH for the support! I really like to write, so hopefully the writing aspect isn't as jumbled as I think it is. (Make sure to subscribe, it's free and you can always unsubscribe if you don't like it ;))


	13. I'm Just Bad-Luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rain is calming to George...but the rain is cold. It's unforgiving...

. . . 

“George!” I exclaim, seeing him nod off. Shit, it could be shock or blood loss. He won’t be squirming very much anymore though, but that’s the only plus side to this happening. I need to get this done quickly. To make matters worse-- _a crash is heard downstairs._ I look at the doorway, the lights of the candles reveal shadows roaming downstairs. I hurriedly look at Sapnap who seems to be losing it, he’s worried over his mind. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck--we need to get Callahan in here!_ “Sapnap, get Callahan.” I mutter, trying my best to suture up George quickly but efficiently. Sap doesn’t budge. “NOW.” I yell, he jumps up a bit. He nods hesitantly before leaving the room swiftly. It doesn’t take long until Callahan is rushing back in with him, they shut the door loudly. 

“Now...what?” Sap drags out his words. 

“Look out the window,” I mutter, working on the last stitch. “How far is the jump?” I glance at him, his jaw dropped to the ground.

“Are you fucking insane?” He nearly screams, but Callahan signs something calmly. “What did he just say?”

“He said; It’s worth the risk, better than dying.” I sigh, finally done stitching up George. “Sapnap, can you clean the needle and make the thread neater?” I ask, using rubbing alcohol to clean up the area. Sap gets to work on what I’ve asked as Callahan peers out the window. Placing the gauze pad on top of the newly sewn wound, I wrap it with the long strands of plain ole’ gauze. I rip off the access, knowing that we’ll need the rest later. _We’re only about three days in only three. Three days in and yet we were shot at. Three days in and yet George is terribly injured, maybe dying. Three days in and yet my family is dead. Three days in and yet...I killed someone. I killed someone...I’m a fucking_ **_monster_ ** _._ Gripping my scalp, hands bloodied, I yank harshly. Tears form at the corners of my eyes again, I take a deep breath. I have to keep it together. I...I have to stand strong. I-

“Dream?” Sapnap places a hand on my shoulder, I tense up. “Are you-” 

“I’m fine.” I shake his hand off my shoulder. “Sorry for yelling at you.” I can’t look at him. _I can’t look into his desperate eyes, I can’t have them search my face. I can’t…_

“Are you sure?” I cover my face, clawing my hands into my forehead. I don’t want them to see me like this...I need to cover up. I need to--banging at the door begins to ring off again. _Must’ve been yelling too much._

“We can’t focus on me,” I place the medications/medical supplies into my backpack. I whip my backpack onto my back, hurting it a little bit. I grab my bat, gripping it tightly. “We’re out of time, Sap.” I grit, smashing the window. The glass falls out into the rain, letting the colder rains hit us. Colder because it’s nighttime huh? Good thing it’s humid, otherwise we’d have to worry about sickness. I tuck my bat into my backpack, looking out the window. Freaks haven’t infiltrated the backyard too heavily yet. I don’t turn around... _he’ll see right through me._ “There’s two back there, they probably broke through that fence. That’ll be our escape.” I notice stray bobby-pins on the floor, without thinking I take them. I begin to mess with them, _what would we do after jumping though? It’s too high to come out unscathed-_

“Dream!” Sapnap shakes me. I jolt again, forcing myself to focus. I put the bobby pins into my pant pocket. 

“Right.” I nod, grabbing both of the duffel bags. I toss them out the window, receiving a look from Callahan. I grimace, the guilt kicking harder than before. _You killed her, Clay. Alyssa is dead because of you._ I shake my head, wanting to carve out the voice in my head. “If anyone here should go first...it’s gotta be George and I. He’s the biggest liability here, and I’m the guy to carry him.” I grab George’s backpack, throwing it out the window. 

“Dream that’s suicide, let one of us go down first so we can keep those bastards off of you both.” 

“There could be more in the shadows, Sap. You two are the two healthy ones-”

“You are too.” 

“I suppose. But trust me on this. Just shine a flashlight, I’ll need to see.” I decidedly toss my own backpack down there, knowing that it’ll just be excess weight to sprain my ankle or leg even. That’s when I carefully lifted George up, his breathing is fine...that’s good. “Keep the light on me, please.” I beg Sapnap, never turning to face him. He huffs, but I don’t give him enough time to speak. I sit on the ledge of the window, George in my arms. I feel the rain trickle down my calves, I take a deep breath as I close my eyes. _You’re going to kill him too_ . In- _you’re going to kill Sapnap-_ and- _you’re going to kill everyone left_ \--out. I open my eyes, sliding down the roof. I angle my feet to slide faster, holding onto George carefully. I feel the ground beneath my feet falter, leaving me completely. I tuck my legs in, holding George tightly. Aiming for the bushes, I try to land feet first and at an angle. I untuck my legs last minute--SNAP. 

I check George, his wound especially, the bleeding isn’t going through the bandages. I then check myself, nothing but pains that will haunt me later. I don’t think I broke anything, luckily. I get up, setting George onto the now snapped bush. I fall to the ground, my left ankle crying out to me. _Fuck...landed on it terribly. I hope to god it’s not sprained_. I force myself to get up, biting back the rain--the pain. I noticed a beam of light on the bags I threw earlier, because of the light I’m able to limp over there. I put my backpack back on hearing a snarl near me, but it’s outside the light beam! I swing aimlessly, a shot in the dark. 

The swinging fucked up my stance, forcing me to move my ankle. _FUCK!_ I need to get back to George soon, I shouldn’t be away from him for too long. I look up at the window, Sapnap is trying his best to follow where I go. I nod hearing the growl again, this time louder. Much louder. I turn to the right of me, getting a glimpse of the ugly freak--OOF! 

“Dream!” Sapnap shouts once more, moving the light around a bit as he does so. 

I get tackled, using my bat to keep the freak off of me. I clench my jaw, breathing harshly. I grunt, shoving the freak off of me. I hastily get onto my feet, leaning most of my weight onto my right foot, looking at the wet-bastard. It looks like it was eaten from it’s leg...must’ve been painful. I hold my breath swinging with perfect accuracy...for a person with a fucked up ankle. The freak falters, tilting its now deformed head. I hit it again, the bat making a disgusting sound as it hits it. Finally, the freak falls to the ground. I use my right leg to stomp on the freak’s head, though the access weight on my other foot makes me bite my lip harder. _It’s dead, there should be one more down here somewhere._ Suddenly another moan catches me off guard, I feel my arm get yanked to the ground--bat lost somewhere on the ground. 

It looks me dead in the eyes, licking its lips. I inhale as much as I can, exhaling twice as hard. I feel my arms fall apart, the muscle strength being overused. I tuck my knees in again, kicking upwards with both legs. The freak gets launched away from me, I groggily get up the pain hurting much more than anticipated. Staring at it, it contemplates for a brief second before it runs at me again. Within seconds, I’m back on the ground. The light shifts again, it reveals more pairs of hands from the gaping hole in the fence. _More are coming! Think dumbass--THINK!_ I hold back the freak with everything that I have, that’s when I start to feel around the area around me. _Please, let there be a knife that fell from the bag. Please, let there be anything-_ I feel a sharp object that pricks my index finger...it’s a shard of glass! I grab it tightly, it stings my hand as it cuts deeper into my palm, _I need to use as much force as possible_.

“Eat that bitch.” I mutter, shoving the sharp shard of glass into the freak’s throat. I feel it go slack. I get up, groaning. I hear more footsteps coming from the fence, _I forgot about the rest. Dumbass._ Fuck it, I have to go back to George. I pick up my bat, bringing it to hang off my backpack again. Blood pours down my right hand steadily, this is going to be too much to handle later. 

Shambling back to the damaged bush, I hear sliding coming from the roof. Callahan or Sap might be coming down. Though, I never hear a distinct crash in bushes near us. I grab George carefully, the rain wetting his features making them glisten in the artificial light coming from the flashlight. I adjust his hair, exhaustion starting to weigh heavier than before. _Where the hell did this week go wrong?_ I move his hair again, one strand of hair refusing to stay. We never even rested from earlier, I shrug it off for now. We’ll sleep in a safe environment later, I’ll promise that later to Sap.

More growling and moans sound off, closer than before. I tense up, having to use one arm to hold George and the other reaches towards my bat--that’s not going to work. I need both hands for that! I stop reaching for it, realizing an item still tucked into my waistband. _No, there has to be another way. I can’t..._ I need to figure out how to fight with George in tow. I walk into the light, noticing that more footsteps come my way. A hand lands on my shoulder, I rush forward. Turning around rapidly I kick the thing in the legs, sweeping it off its feet in seconds. 

“You are way more skilled than I thought you were.” A familiar--it’s Sapnap. Holy shit, he slid down the roof. 

“I’m sorry, I-” 

“Don’t apologize, we got other things to worry about.” He grunts, getting off the ground. “Pack quick the kick, huh? What are you, a kangaroo?” He glances at the freaks ahead of us closing the gap from the living and the dead. He sprints to his backpack, grabbing the axe off the back of it. He comes back over, roaring to fight. CRASH--I look behind us to see that the windows are being broken by the freaks inside the house. They want to come flooding out to us. 

“Fuck, we’re surrounded.” I bite my lip, holding George tightly. 

“We are, but this isn’t the first time.” Sap looks at the axe, preparing to overwork himself again. He isn’t limping, he must’ve caught himself on the ledge of the roof. He took his time, _if only I was so smart to think about that-_ “Besides, we made it out the first time. This time, we know what to do.” I nod, seeing the light move down the roof. Callahan within a minute is down here with us, he has his crossbow ready, the flashlight is perched on him. A feeling of guilt presses deep into my soul, but that’s when I notice he’s limping. _He did the same thing I did._

“Callahan, you’re limping. Did you-” He then aims at the crowd of the dead in front of us, shooting the first one he sees. I gulp, carefully trying to take my bat out yet again. 

“We’ll protect George, lay him down.” Sap grunts, starting to rush to the front line of freaks. I nod, gently laying him on the wet grass. _He’s going to hate me for this...but I have to help out somehow. I can’t cause any more harm._ I make sure that the wound doesn’t get worse in the position I lay him in. I set him by Callahan’s feet, who decidedly is going to stand here in the back, so he can get a better shot at these fucks.

I ‘rush’ next to Sap, hitting a freak about to nab him. There’s so many...too many for just the three of us to handle this time. I swing weakly, having to take more time to kill one than earlier. I breathe harder too, I have been this entire time. I hit another, beating it to a pulp. The blood mixes with the rainwater on my face, making a disgusting diluted red. I hear the grunts of Sap who kills them far faster than me. I feel my hand burn everytime I swing, the blood of my own dripping down the handle of the bat. No one else has realized yet, though that doesn’t matter. I keep swinging, I can do this all night if need be. A freak rams into me, two more trying to pile onto me. I use the bat to hold the three of them off, though I feel black fading into my eyes. I use everything that I have, everything that I got. _Stay alive dammit. STAY ALIVE!_ I grip onto the bat, holding them off. I feel the pressure of the past few days flood into my mind, is this the end? My grip slips...they inch closer to my face. I turn my head away, hearing the clacks of teeth come close to my ear. 

“Dream!” Sapnap shouts once more, he rushes over to me. _He’s too late. I’m going to die here._ At the last second, an arrow strikes the head of one of the freaks on top of me. Then another for the one next to it. Sapnap comes over, axing the top of the last freak’s head. “What the fuck Dream! Why did you...you seemed like you stopped struggling-” Sapnap turns to the next bunch of freaks. “I need your help Dream, you can’t flake out on me now!” 

“Don’t worry about me..” I feel my bleeding hand twitch, muscles spasming with too much use. The world around me wobbles, spins, turns. _My head..._ I forcibly take my bat in hand again, the herd thinning out. An arrow whizzes by my head, shooting freaks ahead of me. That’s when Sapnap falls to the ground, four freaks topping him. _I need to...do something..._ I sprint over to where he is (the pain in my ankle threatening me as I do so), grabbing three of them off of him. I yank them with all that I have, sending them in my direction. I back up, swinging the bat as hard as I can. One...two...three…

Sapnap shouts at me, as we finally cleared the fence. He yells things, though I can’t make out any of the words. Ringing floods my ears, the rain pounds harder against the ground--against me. Piles of corpses lying about the backyard now. George is safe, we’re safe. _That’s all that matters._

“You can’t just take three on like that! You could’ve gotten…” Sapnap keeps yelling at me but a look falls onto his face. _Don’t make that face._ He looks down at my bleeding hand, his eyes widen in utter despair. “You’re not…” He gets slightly choked up, his eyes finally pierce through mine. _Please don’t make that face._

“I’m not. I cut myself earlier on a glass shard.” I mutter, showing him the lines from the glass. They are rougher than before due to the grip constantly fucking with them though. Sap hugs me, our bodies connecting with the rain overhead.

“You fucking…” He murmurs. “I thought that..” He hugs me tighter, though his aching bones don’t allow him to hug me anymore after a few seconds. 

“I’m sorry.” I mutter. _Is that all that you can seriously muster up?_

Suddenly another burst hits us, freaks start to run out of the house.

George and Callahan are in immense danger.

My body starts to move on its own, running towards the two. My ankle begs for me to stop, forcing me to tumble over. Sapnap runs over there for me, though I try to convince my body to work with me for just a little bit longer. Callahan already had ideas, he limped in large strides to the duffel bag that he owns...pulling out something massive. _A...gun_. He whips it towards the onslaught of freaks, he motions his head to George as Sapnap comes into his view. Sap nods back, grabbing George hastily. I look at where the gun is aimed, the bullets riddle the freaks. Dozens of rounds sound off, every sound making me get more wound up. 

Sapnap grabs his backpack and slings it over his shoulders as more shots are fired. While he does this I crawl over to the other bags quickly opening up both duffel bags, deciding to leave some supplies that were once ours into Callahan’s duffel. He gives him food, a couple rags, and some water. _He deserves it, he deserves a lot more than what I can offer him._ I place George’s backpack into our duffel, zipping up the bag tightly. I bring it over my shoulders, ready to go. I turn back over to Callahan, only for the shooting to stop. 

“Fuck..” I groan, seeing that more of those things are starting to come from the house. Callahan is just drawing more over here. “We need to..” I begin only for a corpse of another getting my attention. _How is this possible?_ I see a corpse shambling over to where we were, leading the others. _How the fuck--_ it’s her...Alyssa. _Was she even bit? No way, right? Was she-_ -Callahan freezes, dropping the gun in his hands. He signs something to her, though she doesn’t stop walking over here. She stops for a brief second though, looking at the three of us. Callahan, Sapnap, and me...she turns to me...before I realize it--she’s running over here.

_I can’t...no, no, no, no--NOT AGAIN! I can’t kill her again._ I brace myself to run but that’s when an arrow flies right into her head. It catches in the back of her head, it makes her fall within seconds. Callahan walks over to her looking at her sadly. He rips the arrow out of her head carefully and gently...though there isn’t time to do much for her. We can’t bury her, for a moment it seems as if the world pauses. Sapnap ruins this feeling.

“Guys we need to go!” Sap yells, tossing Callahan’s duffel bag to him, though Callahan doesn’t even catch it. _Right. Those things are on our tails again, even if Callahan did thin them out severely._

“I saw you limping too, do you need help walking or-” I begin, though he glares at me. I want to back up, run even. I can’t though, not without Sap or George. He signs something to me, 

_“This is your fault, I’m on my own anyways. You don’t need to take care of me like I’m a toddler.”_ Callahan furrows his eyebrows. Sapnap looks at me expectantly. 

“I know it is, but you’re not going to die here. Get your ass walking.” I feel my voice threatening to give out, I don’t allow it to. 

_“Leave me be.”_ Callahan turns to me, raising a small gun. The one that resembles...I back up slightly. 

“Thank you for saving me...I’m sorry.” Callahan doesn’t care and turns back to the corpse of Alyssa...finally dead. 

“We’ve got to go!” Sapnap yells, grabbing my arm. He forcefully makes me run, ensuring our safety. I turn to look at Callahan, he just looks down at his departed friend... _it’s my fault she’s lying there on the grass. My fault she became one of the freaks. My fault that he’s going to succumb to a worse fate...I’m just bad-luck._ A gunshot is heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate all of you a lot. Until next Sunday, toodles!  
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> F


	14. No Better Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...but it also brings life when it comes. Rain can bring so many good moments if you just soak it up. It can heal you.

We are silent the entire time we run away, the patters of the rain creating an unknown atmosphere. It hasn’t rained in a while, or at least it’s been a while since I’ve seen it. I feel the weariness of the day hit me harder than before, even if I’m just ‘running’ now. Sapnap is right beside me the entire time, though it’s hard to look at him. I’m not even sure who the hell I’m supposed to be anymore. I glance around, hoping for a place to lay-low. A place to get some rest, a place where we can let our guard down--I don’t think that’s even possible anymore. We couldn’t even trust people that had saved my life before. In turn, we were about to get robbed. 

“Dream?” Sapnap mutters quietly, the rain nearly covers his voice. I glance at our clothes, all of them soaked.

“Yeah?”

“Would this house work?” Sapnap motions to a house that is over ten blocks away from the last place we had resided in. I made sure that we were at least walking in the direction we had to go anyways, so it should be fine. 

“It will.” We walk onto the porch of the house, finally getting shielded from the rain. Sap leans George against the wall. “Stay with him.” I say softly, looking away from him. I unscathed my bat for hopefully the last time tonight. 

“I can help you though-” 

“Please.” I grab the doorknob, limping in. Sapnap listens and doesn’t follow behind me. 

As I walk in, I notice that everything is already cleaned up. The place already looks barren, but I need to check nonetheless. I enter all of the rooms of the first floor, seeing nothing of interest or anybody. I then go up the stairs-- _there might be another dead pair up here. Prepare for the worst._ I check the bathroom, bedrooms, and even closets. As it turns out, there’s nothing here. Hell, all useful and light supplies have been taken already too. This house is clear, no blood, no supplies; it’s perfect for the night. 

I walk back to the front door and Sapnap looks at me with curiosity, I pry my eyes away from him. 

“So?” He drags out the ‘o’. 

“It’s clear, you get yourself and George comfortable. I’ll barricade the doors, you deserve to take a break.” I hobble into the living room, seeing Sap gently set George on the couch. I close the front door carefully. As I set my bag down beside the couch, I feel a shiver go down my spine-- _damn these wet clothes_. I carefully set the duffel by the couch too, though I prepare myself for moving furniture to block exits and entrances. However, my adrenaline fades revealing all of the pain that I was avoiding. I wince, clenching my jaw. I try to hide the fact that it feels nearly unbearable. Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder-

“Let me help you...” Sap sighs. His grip is light, more concerned than angry. My eyes drift up to his face...there is frustration there, it practically seethes off of him. I huff, allowing him to get by my side and help move things. Things like: tables, chairs, etc. I try to steer clear from looking at his face the entire time, I know that he’s pissed off at me. _He has to be._ We begin to move the dining table to the back door, knowing that the fences are probably just as weak as the last house. I feel the pain in my ankle continue to cry out to me, my hand hasn’t stopped bleeding yet either. Sap looks at me, burning into the side of my skull. “You need to get patched up first! Jesus Christ..” He groans, halting his efforts.

“After we move this table then I’ll sit down and patch myself up, okay?” I breathe out. 

“I sincerely doubt that. Let’s just do it now.” 

“After the table-” 

“Dream.” Sap collapses both of his hands onto my shoulders. He forces me to look at him. His eyes pierce through mine...it’s almost as if he can read my mind. I roll my eyes, going back to the dining room. I take a seat in one of the six wooden chairs. _They look abnormal without the table...soon they’ll join in making this place safer though._ SCREE! I jump up and glance over at what caused the sound--it was Sap. He’s moving the table without me. I relax a little bit, but not by much. 

“So am I allowed to get my bag or…”

“No.” _Leaves nothing to the imagination, huh?_

“No? Why not?”

“Because I know you, you’re going to want to help me out all because you’re ‘up now’.” Sap faces me, having finished moving the table. He walks to the couch retrieving my supplies. “You are just...infuriating.” I glare at the back of his skull. “I can feel you staring!Don’t give me that look! I’m just trying to help.” His voice cracked... _holy shit--_ I wheeze. As my eyes crinkle, I can’t help but notice him grin as well. He hauls my backpack over to where I am and sits across from me. As he scoots in his chair I lean back.

“Woah, woah, woah..” I snicker, causing him to cross his arms sarcastically. 

“Wha--Dream! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you wanted to~” Yet another smile tugs onto his face. I take a deep breath as an attempt to remove some of the laughter in my chest. “So...are you ready?” _That was sudden...he’s also serious...fuck._

“I suppose so.” I say this, cementing the mood. “I think we should start with my arm, so that I can work on my ankle without blood in the mix.” I lean over to get into my bag only for Sap to shove my chest back, into the back of the seat. “Why won’t you let me grab my supplies?” I raise my eyebrow, looking everywhere but his face. He’s not as open when he’s serious...it’s actually kind of scary.

“Can you teach me what to do?” 

“What?” I murmur.

“You were able to stitch up George, right?”

“Yeah…” 

“Teach me. You obviously know something about these things--uh, medical stuff that is.” He squirms in his chair a bit, anxious to be sure. I sigh. 

“I don’t know much, but I suppose I can.” I roll my sleeves up. “I guess count this as lesson number one-- _a bleeding wound_.” I exaggerate, he snickers a little bit. “I’ll tell you what we’ll need. We’re going to need cloth, soap, water, ointment if we have any, a gauze pad, and-”

“Gauze?” He asks. I nod as he gets up to retrieve every item, in the meantime I place pressure onto the wound. “What are you doing?” 

“Putting pressure on the wound, it’s to stop the bleeding. It helps to have a cloth, toss one would you?” A rag is thrown my way. I catch it and put the pressure back onto my hand, clenching my jaw the entire time. _It might be a bit difficult to narrate but I’ll manage, he needs to learn._ He has the items placed onto a seat nearby, only then does he sit back down. He scoots his chair closer to me, mere inches away. I bring the rag away from the wound, seeing no blood leaking anymore. I take a look at the damage. 

“Holy shit!” Sap exclaims. “Your hand is way worse than I thought it was-” He turns away from the sight. 

“I know, I know. It’ll probably leave a scar from the use of the bat, but it won’t need stitches.” I place the rag near me, _maybe it can be washed?_ “So now’s the time for the...yeah.” I glance at the soap. Sap looks back at me, then notices my stare. 

“That’s going to hurt, huh?” He looks at me carefully. “Good, it’s what you get for pushing yourself too much. In fact, can I clean the wound?” I make a face, the kind of face I can’t be sure. “What? It’s something deserved.” 

“I saved your ass, you should be thanking me. But yes you can. Try not to get the soap in the wound, oh and we’re going to have to pour water on it. You know, rinse the gunk out.” 

“Oh you ‘saved’ my ass? You placed yours in danger.” He grabs my hand delicately unlike his bickering. “Water first I’m guessing?” 

“Yep.” 

“Okay.” He dumps water onto the wound carefully, a slight sting surrounds the wound. I clench my jaw again, this time harsher. _My dentist would’ve killed me._ I notice he wets a separate rag and rubs soap on it, then he dabs around the area. I hiss out in pain, snatching my hand back from him. “What the fuck!” 

“You hit my fucking cuts!” I point out the cuts on the top knuckles. “Did you not see these ones? They’re minor, yes, but jesus!” I grab the water by his side and dump a small amount atop my fingers. I bring my hand back into his grasp. 

“What a baby.” He coos, I groan as he cleans up my hand again. Here and there I release a large exhale from minor pain. Then he dumps water to remove the access. “What’s next?” 

“Some nurse..” I complain. “But next is the ointment on top of all of the wounds. It helps them heal faster.” Sap then grabs the small amount of ointment we have, we only have a miniature type of Vaseline. We’re going to have to use this sparingly. His finger dips into it carefully and he starts to gently apply it onto the cuts. “After this you place the gauze pad onto the big cut, band-aids on the smaller ones. The last thing after that is wrapping it all up.” I give the last bit of information. 

Sap carefully wraps my wound after doing all of the previous steps, however something is washed up onto his face. It’s like he wants to say something but he’s afraid to. _I’m not going to pry it out of him...at least not yet_. I look around, noticing that this family’s pictures are plastered nearly everywhere...but a smaller picture frame has its photo gone. I smile, knowing the possibilities of survival they could have. Hopefully they don’t mind us rearranging the place though, maybe we should leave a note? 

After Sapnap is finished wrapping my hand, I tell him to just watch me for this next part rather than do it. While he made a side-comment, he understood. Now, we’re about to unveil the damage. Slowly, I remove my shoe. Then my sock... _what the fuck did you do Clay? It’s the very thing you feared!_

“It’s sprained you can tell from the bruising and the big bump here.” I point to it, careful not to poke my ankle at all. Just getting it out of my shoe and sock was painful enough, but now I have to wrap it up tightly. I even have to elevate it-

“You’ll be out of commission for a bit…” Sap mutters, looking at it. I nod. 

“The bare minimum is a week.” I grab a cloth, hoping that it’ll work for now. I rip it into one long strip of cloth. I bite back the pain as I wrap my ankle as tightly as possible. “We can keep going if you want.” I focus on my ankle, besides...I’ve already seen the look in his eyes. 

“Why would I want that?” Sap exclaims, shocked that I even mentioned such a thing.

“We’re going on this trip because of you, remember? I may be the one calling the shots most of the time, but we’re going to your family. We can go at the pace that you want.” I keep wrapping my ankle, trying to remember the feeling back when I was a kid. I sigh unintentionally. 

“We may be going to see my family, Dream, but I want you guys to actually be put together on the way. Especially when we’re there too. We can stop for a few days, I’m fine with it.” He leans on his elbows, examining the way I’m wrapping and how tight I go. “I don’t think Grey’s Anatomy used cloth, do we not have the right materials?”

“No we don’t. We’ve used a lot of medicinal supplies as it is, that’s why I haven’t taken a pain killer yet. We need to save those for George or if one of us gets hurt even worse. To do this properly we’d need a compression wrap, but cloth works too.” I pause before bringing up the past topic again. “I’m sure once George wakes up, he’ll need a day before leaving too. If he’s to wake up right now--we’d be able to go tomorrow.” 

“But your ankle? Are you stupid?”

“I can manage, but if you’re so worried about it we can leave in like three days. I wouldn’t feel comfortable staying in the same spot for a whole week, especially with all of those freaks around too.” 

“Now you’re making sense, what is it with you and risking things that don’t need to be risked?” He fiddles with his hands, probably expecting an answer. “Actually, don’t answer that.” He quickly mentions, practically reading my mind. I look around the room, seeing that there is an armchair. Sap notices my gaze. “Are you done?”

“Yeah, all I need to do is elevate it and let it heal. Are we going to move that chair to the front door?” 

“No, I think that we can manage one entrance and exit. Besides, if we’re going to be cooped up in this house for a couple of days--I’ll probably need to scavenge for supplies.” 

“It wouldn’t hurt to move the chair in front of the front door, especially with these dining room chairs too. You can use the backdoor to go out. We should also move George into one of the bedrooms upstairs, he’d probably be more comfortable on an actual bed.” I try to stand up, to which Sap immediately goes to my left side. He helps me to the couch for the moment, I grab three pillows setting them on an arm rest. From here I sit to face the pillows, then I place my left leg on top of them...I’m going to be sitting like this for a little bit. 

Sap begins to move the armchair I was eyeing earlier, he moves it to the front door. Then he slowly moves the rest of the dining chairs to be set up in a way for it to be difficult to open the door without incredible force. While he does this, I’m stuck in one spot. George takes up the other two spots on the couch for now, though he’s going to be moved to a bed soon. I look at our drenched clothes again, I can’t elevate _now_. I sit up hastily, opening the duffle bag that’s on the floor. I grab out a change of clothes for all three of us, Sapnap glances at me muttering something under his breath.

“I’m going to change.” I limp over to the first floor bathroom, locking the door behind me. I don’t even turn around to see Sap’s reaction, I already know he’s disapproving of this.

I peel away my shirt from my skin, noticing a few bruises here and there around my arms...even my stomach. _Probably from the struggle...god._ I use the inside of the shirt to wipe any remains of blood on my face. Though, it’s so diluted that I could easily mistake them for freckles. We should’ve done this sooner so that we weren’t uncomfortable all of this time. I put my alternate shirt on, it’s a thin long sleeve shirt. The torso part is white, but the sleeves are a dark green. I’m not sure if I could even call this a ‘long sleeve’ shirt. The sleeves only really go down to my elbows. I then remove my jeans, _wet denim sucks. Why did it have to rain?_

However, while I was about to hang the pants--I feel something in the pockets...the bobby pins! I look at them, setting them onto the counter of the sink. _I should use those to move my bangs from my eyes._ Though my hair isn’t shoulder length, it’s down to the bottoms of my ears. I carefully slip into a new pair of jeans, these ones aren’t baggy. They’re skinny jeans...fuck. _I grabbed the wrong ones!_ I shrug, putting them on. I’ll have to deal with it. Finally I grab all of my bangs and carefully bring them midway down the top of my head. I place a bobby pin into my mouth while using the other one to hold down the pieces of hair. After that one was set into place, I use the other one. Together they form an ‘X’ on the top of my head. 

I look back into the mirror in front of me, noticing the bandages around my arm especially. I sigh, looking at myself. My bangs stick upwards somehow from where the bobby pins let them loose, why does my hair always have to be difficult. I should just cut it...I shake my head. _I should get off my feet._

I walk out of the bathroom, my clothes now hanging off the shower curtain holder. I peer at Sap, who took the clothes I set out for him. In fact, he even got George redressed too. _How long was I in there for?_ I shake my head again, going back to my spot on the couch. Sapnap flicks my arm once I do. 

“Ow!” I rub the area. “What was that for?” I question.

“You got up without me.” 

“I was changing you dweeb!”

“So?” He smirks. 

“Careful Sap, you’re gonna make me act up.” I bring a hand to my chest. There’s a moment of giggling as I elevate my ankle. Sapnap then decides the floor is lame so he gets up and grabs George. I know he’s going to move him to a bed, so I say nothing. _What would’ve happened if Callahan or Alyssa lived? Would they be here right now?_ I cringe from my own active imagination. _Would we be dead or would we have reasoned with splitting supplies?_ Sapnap walks back into the living room, he sits himself next to me. I decide to lean back, laying my head in his lap. He jolts from his but relaxes into it within seconds. 

“I wrote him a note for when he wakes up, he’ll know to come down here or call for us if the pain is unbearable.” Sap mutters, absentmindedly messing with my hair--or the rest of it that isn’t in the bobby pins.

“That’s good, at least he won’t be too confused.” I hum. “I’ll ask him how the pain is when he wakes up. From there I’ll try to ration out the pills we can give him, just enough to help him without wasting too many.” 

“I’ve been meaning to ask, Dream,” he twirls my hair. “How did you know what to do? You keep knowing what to do in case of a medical emergency...I meant to ask way sooner but there wasn’t a right time. Until now at least.” 

“Oh, it’s simple. You know how easily I get bored, right?”

“Yeah, even when we were like middle-schoolers.” 

“Mhm. When I was around that age, I picked up a few books that were just laying around the house. They were medical textbooks. I read about five out of the--I think damn near 100 books there! We had a bookshelf just for all of them too, I didn’t realize how much work it was to be a nurse.” I hesitate after saying this, a pause lasting 10 life-times.

“I remember you mentioning the books years ago.” Sap finally says something. “I can’t believe I had forgotten until now. I remember how proud you were. Of yourself and...” 

“My mom.” I say the words that were getting caught in my throat. 

“We don’t have to talk about this-”

“I think that I should, it’s resonated for too long already.” I sigh, I don’t want to keep crying. I don’t want to live the same pain over and over again. I want to move on. _I need to move on_. Sapnap smiles, looking at me. I look at him with my eyes full of trust. 

“Mhm, no better time than when you’re stuck in a house anyways, right?” He continues back to messing with my hair.

“Right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> Do you like this sliver of fluff? You like it? You better enjoy it, because I've planned for a hell of a lot more angst after this.  
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> This chapter kinda long, probably because I wanted to make up for the large amounts of dialogue.  
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> Oh, and I decided to edit the first two chapters. It's just format correction, don't worry. I also finally gave the full list of characters I plan on adding in this book. They will either be mentioned or actually in the plot, so get excited for what's to come!  
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> Thank you so much for reading, I appreciate all of you that read this and we're over 700 hits!


	15. Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We talked...Dream and I at least. It was powerful to say the least but now is not the time to reflect...

. . .

I blink my eyes open. I recall the events from last night, looking down at my lap. There he was, Dream. He’s all curled up onto me. It was an emotional night for him, we talked for a long time. But eventually in the midst of the chaos, Dream passed out. I didn’t want to wake him up to get him to a proper bed, so I opted to sleep sitting up. _Bad decision, Jesus Christ my back!_ I force myself to sit up properly, I hear a loud POP as I sit up. Is my posture really that bad, I mean come on? I look out the front door’s window, it’s about noon? I’d have to check my phone-- _MY PHONE_! 

I quickly pat down my pockets, making sure not to move Dream too much. I don’t feel anything out of the ordinary...fuck! I left my phone in the previous house...god damn it! I’m so stupid, holy-

“Sapnap?” A groggy voice calls out to me, I crane my neck in the direction of the stairs. George! I want to get up...but it’ll wake up Dream. _So will talking though, I think that I should just get up._ I carefully move Dream’s head out of my lap, he churns a bit--my eyes widening as he does so--but he goes right back into undisturbed slumber. 

I get off the couch and meet Gogy by the bottom of the stairs. I want to hug the honk out of him-but I know that we’d risk bursting a stitch or whatever. Gogy peers over at the couch, his face reddening by the sleeping green boy. I smirk.

“Aw, someone missing their cute boyfriend?” I lean on the railing, teasing the other. All of it only to get shoved a bit. “Rude, anyways how are you? Did you sleep okay?”

“It was...fine. I’m a little bit in pain right now, but I see the ‘doctor’ has passed out.” Gogy stares at Dream longer than he intended to, clearly, and forces himself to look at me. “So how long was I out for?” 

“Ah about 12 hours, in that time I was out for...five. I feel rested enough, but sore.” I crack my neck from sitting in the same spot for over five hours.

“Where’s Callahan? Where even are we?” He looks around the floor. “I was half expecting to wake up in the same room.” 

“Uh...well...Callahan is dead. He shot himself. We’re ten blocks away from the house that we were in. I carried you from there to here, but Dream got you out of the previous house.” I mention, though something phases back into my mind. _Alyssa._

Dream talked not only about his family but about killing her too. I won’t bring anything up to Gogy, because I know that would betray Dream’s trust. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to though, he’s going through so much. We’re all going through so much, but he’s actually _killed someone living._ Not only that but she got reanimated after dying! This means it’s not the bite like how the news describes it as, she just died and came back. _It's not the bite..._

“What? Callahan--how is that guy dead? He looked so strong--and by his own means too?” The other looks at me as if I just told him to solve a complex problem, or maybe the word perplexed fits better. I'm not too sure.

“Yeah, it surprised me too. I practically had to drag Dream out though, the place was a disaster.” 

“I bet, speaking of Dream...you said he got me out of the house?” 

“Yeah. He was honking insane...” 

___

_“We’re out of time, Sap.” Dream smashes the window with his bat, the glass twinkles out of the light and into the pitch black darkness. I look at Dream, my jaw wide open._ What is this moron doing! _“There’s two back there, they probably broke through that fence. That’ll be our escape.” I look through the gaping hole barely seeing the creatures in the night’s atmosphere. The pounding at the door acts as a clock. We need to think of something better, this isn’t the right way. I grab Dream and shake his shoulder lightly._

_“Dream-” I begin, trying to find the words. There is a better way of this, I’m sure of it._

_“Right.” He mutters, clearly out of it. He shoves something in his pocket and grabs both duffel bags...he promptly chucks them out of the window. What the fuck! “If anyone here should go first...it’s gotta be George and I. He’s the biggest liability here, and I’m the guy to carry him.” _ No, no, no, no. _He then throws George’s backpack into the rain. I guess it’s already too late to back down. The very least he could do is let Callahan or I go down first. He’ll get swarmed, getting both himself and George killed!_

_“Dream that’s suicide, let one of us go down first so we can keep those bastards off of you both.”_

_“There could be more in the shadows, Sap. You two are the two healthy ones-”_

_“You are too!” I want to scream at him, he’s being way too risky. He’s acting like a mad-man. He’s acting so reckless for no reason, we have a bit of time!_

_“I suppose. But trust me on this. Just shine a flashlight, I’ll need to see.” I shakily nod, why does he have to be going first? Him and George...the two people that I care about that I know for certain are alive._ Why them? _He throws his backpack down into the backyard, thinking about what he’s about to do. “Keep the light on me, please.” He mutters this and I huff. Off he goes! Shit--I grab my flashlight and aim it down on the pile of bags. A rustle of bushes sounds off, but in here the door’s hinges start to jiggle. We’re truly running out of time up here too, maybe he did make the right call._

 _I bring myself back to reality as he wanders into the light without George. I immediately notice the limp in his step,_ he fucked up _._ He just slid off the roof! _Suddenly out of nowhere...he gets jumped by a freak!_

 _“DREAM!” I shout, handing the light to Callahan. “I’m going down there.” I hastily tell the other grabbing my bag and tossing it carefully into some bushes. Callahan grabs my wrist, shaking his head. “I have to! He’s fighting alone and he’s--he’s limping!” I shake Callahan's grip off of my wrist. Proceeding to hop out of the window, rain immediately catching my clothes. I am drenched within seconds, but I don’t fucking care. I slide down the roof, however I catch myself on the gutter. I climb over to a gutter pipe that leads to the ground, I can climb down it. _I can help Dream.

___

“Wow.” Gogy shudders, he leans carefully against the kitchen counter. 

“Yeah, he slid down the roof. Not only that, but we had to fight freaks in the backyard. The entire time, he was pushing himself too hard. He cut his hand and made it worse by using the bat.” I frown. 

“Sounds like he had a lot on his mind.” 

“He does.” I cross my arms. “Anyways, I’ll stop ranting about it now. Are you hungry?” I stray from the subject, though it seems like an unfinished topic. I should bring it up with Dream in an actual conversation, not just bring it up lightly. It’s a serious issue, _he could’ve died_. 

“I’m starving actually, what have we got?” Gogy starts to look through cabinets but I stop him from reaching any of the handles. 

“Dream already checked the place out yesterday, there’s nothing here. Nothing we can carry at least. We should have plenty of food anyways.” I walk over to the couch again, I carefully open the duffel bag and grab a few things. Before I stand up properly again, I glance at Dream. His breathing, it’s slow and deep. A small smile appears on my face. _A smile?_

I walk away from the living room back into the kitchen, here I properly read the labels. ‘ _Fruit Cocktail_ ’, ‘ _Leaf Spinach_ ’, and not to mention ‘ _Mushroom Pieces and Stems_ ’. I peer over at George who practically gags at the choices, to which I smirk. 

“Oh come on Gogy, you can pick first. You are older and frail-” I break into a chuckle only for him to shove me again slightly. 

“Oh shut up.” He mutters, he then yanks the canned fruits off the table. They are the easiest to open, as they actually have the pull tab. _Of course he’d pick that, basic bitch_. “These are the only things even relatively close to breakfast, couldn’t you pick better?”

“Nope, I just grabbed random cans.” 

“Sapnap!” 

“What? It’s not like we’re just not going to eat everything in that bag eventually anyways.” I scoot the spinach over to me, _Dream doesn’t like spinach. He’d refuse to eat this like the piss-baby he is._ I snicker at the thought. I stand up, opening kitchen drawers to find forks or even a can-opener. Surely, there’s something right? 

First drawer is a bust, only napkins and packets of hot-sauce. _These people must’ve eaten out a lot then, or at least ordered a lot of fast food_. I look through the second one, finding silverware!

“Score!” I hold up two forks and a spoon. Gogy looks at me weird but then continues to look at his food. “Okay, be that way.” I hum looking through drawer number three, nothing of importance. Finally, the last drawer is upon us... _please let there be a can-opener in there._ I carefully open the drawer, peering in cautiously. “FUCK YEAH!” I shout, nabbing the can-opener. Gogy rushes over to me and kicks my shin, I groan looking at the other. "What the fuck!" I hiss in pain, rubbing my shin. 

“Dream is still sleeping, idiot!” He critiques me. 

“By the way you just yelled, I don’t think he will be for much longer.” I point out.

“Shut up.” He forcibly takes the spoon out of my hand.

“A ‘thank you’ would be nice.” I mutter. Gogy just sticks his tongue out, _how is it that I’m the younger one? He’s so childish!_ “You’re such an idiot.” I scoff, cracking open the can. Gogy looks at his can and starts to pry it open getting it open within 30 seconds, I snicker. 

“What is it now?” He glares at me. 

“Oh nothing~” I coo. 

“It was clearly something.” 

“Nuh-uh.” 

“Yuh-huh.” 

“Nuh-uh~” 

“Okay, okay, cut it out.” He stops our shenanigans. “So, I saw that you had to remove Dream from your lap when I got down here...anything happen last night?” George grabs the spoon and starts to shovel fruit into his mouth. _Even with his complaints about it, he eats it with a smile, the rat bastard._

“Kinda?” I reply, getting a whiff of what I’m about to ingest--I gag from the smell. I know the flavor is fine though, I’ve eaten this before a couple of times... _I think_. 

“What do you mean ‘Kinda’? It’s either something happened, or nothing did at all.” He groans. 

“Okay, fine. Something did happen, is that what you want me to say?” I smile, though there isn’t a smile on his face. I look at him, trying to search for his expression...but no results appear. It’s so much easier with Dream--he wears his heart on his sleeve. It also helps when we’ve known each other for such a long time. At least, not nearly as long as we’ve known Gogy. 

“What happened?”

“We just talked dude.” 

“About what-” 

“I’m going to stop this thing now,” I snicker. “Jealousy isn’t really your finest attribute Gogmeister.” _Why is he jealous in the first place? I get the whole ‘feeling left out’ thing, it happens quite a lot to me--but why is it every time I hang out or talk to Dream, Gogy gets an attitude?_ George looks away, munching away at his fruits. I open my mouth to say something... _what would I even say? ‘Why are you getting jealous all of a sudden?’ it’s just not plausible._ I instead shove the spinach into my mouth, chewing the slimy substance. 

It’s silent the rest of the time that we eat, otherwise I know we’d start one of our famous arguments. They aren’t real of course...it’s just there’s something in our dynamic that clashes in a way. Maybe it’s just his introverted side against my boldness? I don’t know...it just makes me glad to know that under the circumstances we can still act somewhat normal. _Not Dream though._ My eyes widen at the sudden thought, I turn my head to check on Dream. His breath rises and falls slowly, peacefully. I sigh, turning back to my food. 

_Why did you do that? You already knew he’d be sleeping, moron! Unless...it’s about what he told you. About the previous nightmare he had._ I shake my head, god...I need to relax. I stand up, tossing the can directly into the garbage. I notice the bloodied rag on the counter...it’s soaked with Dream’s blood. I grab the corner of it that has nothing on it and promptly throw it into the kitchen sink. Gogy tilts his head at my actions, but minds his business. I twist the facet for... _water to come pouring out!_ I look at the running water...this place still has power and running water too! _It must be this neighborhood or district even!_ I rush to the living room, grabbing our water bottles. 

“Once you’re done eating, I need you to search for water bottles around the house--we can bottle up more water. I’m going to search some nearby houses.” I give orders, stuff that Dream would probably ask of us. 

“I really don’t want to.” Gogy grumbles.

“Did you forget already? We’re in the middle of a crisis, George. You don’t get to decide this anymore.” I walk back to the living room, grabbing my backpack. I make sure to empty it out somewhat--leaving water, some food, and my axe on the side of the bag. Gogy just stares at me, but he gets to filling up water bottles. I begin to walk to the backdoor, but notice Dream in the corners of my eyes. His breathing rises and falls slowly, his hair is messy from me tangling my hands in it earlier in the cracks of the morning. _I can still feel the softness of it_ , _it matches his personality. It matches...him._ Something tugs at my heart, but I snap out of it quickly. I wave bye for now, exiting the house to the backyard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> Would you look at that, mans is awake! (x2) How we feeling about Sap leaving so early though? I mean...  
> .  
> .  
> I had a hard time trying to finish this chapter, there was a lack of motivation to be sure, but I found my way eventually.  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Thank you so so much for reading! I really do like this and it does help me practice creative writing. I find it easier to practice with characters that aren't even mine.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please come back soon!


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